Trust Your Opposite
by hsm0007
Summary: Troy and Gabriella work for the CIA. They are partners and can not get along. Throughout their mission together they learn very important life skills, but will it be all for nothing in the end?
1. Partners

**Summary: Troy Bolton and Gabriella Montez both work for the CIA. When Gabriella gets transferred and has to become Troy Bolton's partner, the two have to go through many events to learn to cooperate together, agree together, train together, and most of all trust each other with their lives. The two go through life and death while trying to save a little girl, but will that teach them their own lesson at the end of the day? **Troy plopped down in his desk chair in the huge office of the agency he worked for. He shut his eyes trying to block out what he and his partner/ best friend just attended. Troy could deal with criminals. He could deal with crazy people. He could deal with mysteries and solving them. But he could never get used to filing a missing person report and just moving onto the next case without looking back. Granted he had only had to do it one other time on his second case, but it had just happened again.

Troy reached up and loosened his tie as he felt that it was too stiff. He looked at his plain desk and realized unlike everyone else in the office, he had no personal things on his desk that stood out to show that it was his. He had been working there for six years now and he still had no personal touch, although he wasn't really in the office all that much since he usually was in the streets out on a case.

"Dude, that was…I never want to attend one of those again." Chad said as his desk was right by Troy's and they were the only two in there since half of the other agents were out on assignments or gathering information, and others were simply busy stopping the crimes. "I just…the girls mother…I've never not finished a mission before, you know?" Chad asked with regret in his voice.

Troy and Chad had been best friends since they were born, and had both gone to college together and gone into the same field: law. They both worked for the CIA, and they loved it, unless they couldn't complete a certain task in time.

"Actually, I don't know." Troy sighed as he decided to just take off his tight tie that felt like it was suffocating him.

"What?" Chad asked as he swiveled around on his computer chair to look at his best friend who was rubbing his temples in circles.

Troy sighed remembering six years ago when Chad was on vacation so he was partnered with some other guy who retired a couple of years ago and how they couldn't save the little girl. "You were on vacation remember, six years ago? This is my second time not finding the little ten year old girl." Troy said in a miserable tone. They were given a certain amount of time and after a while, if they couldn't find her then they had to file a report and just hope that others could as they had to move onto other cases.

"Oh…yeah." Chad said now actually remembering how depressed Troy got. Troy always took these things serious, which you should, but he took it to the heart unlike others that they worked with. "What do you think the chief will say?" Chad dreaded.

Troy shrugged, "I don't know. Where is everyone?" Troy looked around and noticed that only three women were in there at the front of the office answering phones and taking notes frantically as some of the chief's doors were closed indicating that there was a meeting going on or something else important. 

Troy leaned back in his desk and shut his tired eyes. He hadn't had a good night sleep for three weeks as his piercing blue eyes were dreary looking, he had bags under his eyes, and he needed a change of clothes.

"I can't believe that slime ball Jenson got around us." Chad said with a slight anger in his voice. Troy opened his eyes at the sound of Jenson's name. He was their number one suspect who has been one of their top criminals for years now, but always managed to get around the law somehow.

Troy had no doubt that he had something to do with this kidnapping, but from anonymous sources Jenson skipped town for now, and they were left with no leads. "Chad, do me a favor and don't mention his name around here again." Troy rubbed his jaw self consciously as he remembered the last time he saw Jenson, it was a week ago and it ended with Jenson throwing a punch to Troy's jaw and just making it out of an abandoned warehouse before backup could reach them.

"Bolton! Danforth!" Troy's and Chad's heads snapped up at the sound of their names being called from the Chief who just opened his office door and then it dawned on Troy and Chad where everyone else was who weren't on assignments, they must have been in a briefing for some new case as they all filtered out and scrambled around to set to work. "Get in here!" The Chief demanded as Troy threw his tie down on the desk and followed Chad quietly.

Troy and Chad entered the large room where a long wooden table was that fit thirty people if it had too and sat in the two closest chairs near the door. "I heard about your latest case and I'm sorry to hear about such a thing." The Chief started out and Troy gave him a skeptical look.

"It's not an easy thing to lose to especially since it was one of our hardest cases. I promise you two that we'll catch Jenson." The Chief said.

"When!" Troy asked abruptly letting the anger from the funeral they just attended for the little girl that they couldn't find come to life. "When because I refuse to wait until he kidnaps another girl just to spite her family for revenge." Troy declared as he slammed his fist down and Chad's eyes were wide. You don't talk to the Chief like that.

"Troy, man, calm down." Chad said out of the side of his mouth.

"No, I refuse to just sit back. We should be out there and sick every god damn agent on him to bring his sorry ass back here to face his punishment before anyone else can get hurt." Troy stood up.

"Bolton!" The Chief commanded. "Sit down if you want to keep your job." Troy glared as he sat down reluctantly. "I see where you're coming from, and I'm greatly sorry about the little girl, but if we put every agent we have to go after Jenson who could be anywhere right now, then what about all the other people that need and deserve help also?" The Chief shot back as Troy sighed and softened his face knowing he was beat. "Now I called you two in here to tell you some big news."

Chad and Troy both looked at each other wearily, this couldn't be good. The Chief sat down in one of the black squishy chairs as he folded his hands in front of him. "You two are one of the best partners I have seen in a long time." The Chief started and Troy and Chad both knew that this news wasn't going to be good at all. "I just found out yesterday that we're getting two transfer agents in a week." 

Troy and Chad looked at each other one last time. Troy inwardly groaned, there was no way that he was going to get stuck training someone who's new to their office. "Their names are Montez and McKessie. Two of the best women agents there are, I think if you look into Montez's record you'd be pretty impr--"

"With all do respect sir," Troy cut in as Chad gave Troy a warning look and the Chief looked down at his watch impatiently as he looked back up at Troy again. "What does this have to do with us?"

The Chief sighed, "Bolton, you're getting reassigned to Montez and Danforth your new partner is McKessie." 

"What!" Both of them exclaimed. They had been together since, well…forever. They were partners and they didn't trust anyone else with their lives. Troy knew for a fact that Chad always had his back and in return Troy was always there for Chad. There was no hesitation about it.

"Why?" Troy asked in a disbelieving tone.

"Look, you two are the best here, and they were pretty good in New York, and now I want to see their best working with our best. If it doesn't work out then we'll figure something else out, but this is how it goes." The chief said firmly and everyone knew not to mess with him when he spoke like that.

After a long talk and a lot of grumblings from Troy and Chad the two walked out of his office and over to their desks that each had a manila folder on it. Troy's was almost double the size of Chad's as their two other friends walked over to their desks.

"What's up with you two?" Zeke asked who was a tall African American with medium color skin.

"Yeah, you two look pissed." Jason pointed out as he sat on the edge of Chad's desk.

Troy and Chad ignored the two comments as they eyed the folders. "What the hell is this?" Chad asked as he plopped down in his desk.

"Kathy said that this is all the information about your new partners." Zeke informed them as Troy and Chad groaned.

"Don't remind me." Troy said as he pushed it away and Chad opened the folder slowly as he saw a picture of Taylor with all the basic information about her family, age, height, eye color.

"How come Troy's is bigger than mine?" Chad asked as he got up to look at Troy's.

Troy slapped Chad's hand away. "Would you stop. Isn't it bad enough that we're getting new partners, but now we have to baby sit two girls." Troy said as the other three guys looked at each other.

They all knew that there was only guy agents located in LA, but now this would be sure to mix things up. "Don't you want to at least see what she looks like?" Chad asked eagerly. Taylor was cute, and he was betting Montez was too.

"No." Troy said simply as he put the huge folder in his desk as he had to jam it shut to just close it. "See, all taken care of." Troy said with a fake smile seeing as he wasn't in the mood to joke around that day.

"Yeah, until you have to pick them up at the airport in a week." Jason pointed out as Troy just tried to block out the events that were to come. This was not his day.

* * *

A medium height, petite, 25 year old stood by an oak desk with a picture frame in hand. In the frame there were two people, a medium skinned girl with black hair and brown eyes smiling widely, and Gabriella herself with her curls reaching mid way down her back. Gabriella traced the two girls with her pinky finger sadly before putting it in the cardboard box in front of her.

Gabriella shut the box blocking out anymore memories as Gabriella heard her best friend talk. "I'm gonna miss you."

Gabriella turned around and came face to face with Taylor as they embraced in a hug. "I know, I can't believe you get to go to LA without me." Gabriella said as the two pulled away.

"It's gonna be really weird not having you as a partner. I can't believe they're transferring me just because they needed more 'women' other than secretaries over at the agency." Taylor scowled as Gabriella finished taping one of Taylor's desk boxes. "Just promise me you'll call." 

"Only if you do." Gabriella said back. They had been partners for five years and had become best friends. Out of the corner of Gabriella's eyes she met a pair of green eyes and she quickly looked away. She couldn't deal with him today, not with Taylor leaving in a week and getting assigned a new partner.

Before Gabriella or Taylor could say anything a voice boomed through out the office that had people hastily talking, running around, or talking on the phone trying to do their jobs seeing as most of them were working on this huge case of a business man planning a bombing. "Montez!"

Gabriella looked up to see her Chief standing in his doorway to his office waiting for her to start moving. Gabriella sighed as Taylor shot her a confused look as Gabriella pushed herself away from the desk and walked by him. Him being her ex-boyfriend as of two nights ago. They had been dating for one month and he wanted to start getting a little more serious, like moving in together but Gabriella just didn't feel anything with him. They had slept together, but that was as far as Gabriella would go, she just wasn't comfortable giving him a key to her house or moving in with him.

Gabriella walked into the Chief's office and waited for him to take his own seat. He had his eyes settled on Gabriella for a minute before he started talking. "As you know you're getting reassigned a new partner." 

Gabriella nodded. "Yes Chief."

"Well, I think it would be in the best of interest for us all if you didn't." The chief explained as Gabriella's mouth dropped open. She couldn't get fired, this was her life! She grew up with her mom and dad both working in the CIA. She still had her whole life ahead of her to accomplish her goal which was to bring down the one person she hated the most.

"What!" Gabriella exclaimed.

"Now don't have a fit. Let me explain. I'm transferring you back to your hometown." The Chief explained further as Gabriella's face scrunched up into confusion. Her hometown, but that was LA, where Taylor was going.

"LA?" Gabriella asked just in case she heard wrong.

The Chief nodded, "I think it would be safe to say that we're gonna miss you here, but it would be best if you moved on." 

Gabriella mentally rolled her eyes knowing why he was doing this. She wasn't completely mad, but the reasoning why he was transferring her was despicable. Just because she broke up with his son. "Whatever you say Chief and tell Tom that if he really wanted me out of the office, he could've just told me straight up." Gabriella said standing up and rolling her eyes. 

Gabriella walked out of his office and into the huge one where Taylor was still at her desk. Gabriella walked past Tom again and he had a smirk on his face as Gabriella reached Tay who didn't seem to notice her. "Hey Tay, can I have a box?" Gabriella asked.

Taylor turned around and handed her one as she looked on at Gabriella confused. "Why?"

"To knock Tom out with." Gabriella said sarcastically and Gabriella knew that's what got her into tight situations, it was her mouth that would just shoot off. But if someone lived the life she did, they would have a mouth too, …or be scared that they wouldn't come out of their room, but Gabriella was tough. She could deal. "Guess who's going to LA also?"

Taylor's face broke out into a smile as she rushed over to Gabriella and squealed as she hugged her in a tight embrace. "Now we can be partners again! I knew you would always have my back." Taylor said excitedly.

"Tay, even if we were thousands of miles apart, I would always have your back." Gabriella said in a light tone even though they both knew that Gabriella was dead serious and Taylor returned the same intense stare that meant she would do the same for Gabriella. They both knew that was true, there was no doubt that the other one wouldn't be there for each other since they proved that numerous times over the years.

"Well, here's your box." Taylor said with a smile and her eyes turned into the light brown Gabriella knew them to be as her face fell out of the seriousness look and into a smile.

Gabriella was currently on the one of many CIA's planes with only Taylor, and a pilot. Gabriella was leaning back in her seat with a lazy smile on her face. She loved adventures, and transferring back to her home town would definitely be another exciting chapter in her life.

"So why'd you and Tom break up?" Taylor asked from her seat as she was currently flipping through some cheesy pamphlet the airline had by one of their counters and receptionist.

Gabriella opened her eyes and kinked an eye brow at Taylor who put the pamphlet down and was staring at Gabriella with curiosity. It totally slipped her mind that she forgot to tell Taylor why Tom and her broke up.

Gabriella shrugged as if it was nothing, which it was since she didn't think of Tom to be a serious boyfriend, and shut her eyes while leaning back more in her seat. "He wanted to move in together." 

Gabriella heard Taylor gasp as Gabriella opened one her eyes in her own curiosity and only found Taylor trying to hold in her laughter. Gabriella shook her head as she rolled her eyes behind her eye lids. "Are you serious!" Taylor asked. "You guys have only been going out for like, what?…a month? And he wanted to move in and like split the bills, go shopping together, share the bathroom?" Taylor let out another laugh as Gabriella nodded her head with her eyes still closed and she brought her hands up and put them behind her head like a pillow.

"Do I look like I'm serious?" Gabriella asked as Taylor stopped laughing and Gabriella finally opened her eyes.

"Yeah, but come on. You could've been joking, almost everyone at the agency knew that you aren't one for big relationships." Taylor pointed out.

Gabriella nodded slowly. She knew that was true. She had a hard time trusting people due to the fact of her past, but that didn't exactly stop her from having a relationship, they were just shorter than others. "So who do you think our new partners are like?" Gabriella asked changing the subject as she saw that Taylor made a disgusting face.

Three days ago they found out that they wouldn't be partners anymore and that their new partners were Danforth and Bolton. Gabriella and Taylor both tried to get some kind of dirt on their new partners, but found absolutely nothing on them. But they kind of expected that since the agency was good at covering up names so that not just anyone could track them down.

Gabriella was coming around to the idea of having a new partner. She wasn't happy about it, but she was one for the positives, so as long as Tay and her worked in the same city she would be happy, even though she would prefer knowing her best friend was right by her side, Gabriella wasn't arguing since they were together.

Taylor however was not liking the idea so much. Taylor was not one for change, it took her almost a month to come around to the idea of transferring cities, and now they weren't going to be partners, Gabriella knew that deep down Taylor was panicking until they met their new partners that they were expected to train with, work with, get along with, go undercover with, and eventually trust their lives with.

"Probably some small minded, egotistical, big headed guy." Taylor said with a scrunched up nose that Gabriella laughed at. "What?" Taylor asked confused as her forehead creased and Gabriella laughed a little harder.

"Tay, you are something else." Gabriella said as she settled down. "Everything is going to be fine. I promise." Gabriella said with sincerity. Little did they know Taylor would get the nicer partner of the two guys as Gabriella would get the broody of the two, and a little surprise along the way.

**Tell me what you think and review. I would appreciate it. Thanks.--**


	2. Meetings

Gabriella Montez took her job very seriously. She had to since at least 99 percent of her job consisted of saving people's lives and the other percent consisted of paperwork she couldn't give a damn about. Gabriella always got the job done, most people would say she hadn't failed once, but in her mind she failed twice.

Gabriella was an open person to her partner. She was easy going, laid back, always jumped into things without thinking things through, but yet she took everything dead serious. Because at the end of the day she always had an explanation as to why she did what she did. She didn't bother reading the rules or going by the book some of the time. If it was a matter of life and death, would you follow the rules if your opponent wasn't?

So when Gabriella met her partner, Troy Bolton, she instantly knew something was wrong with him because even outside of work time, he seemed he had a tight stick up his ass towards her and Taylor.

"I'm so tired." Taylor said as they now were on flat ground and walking to the place in the airport where people picked their guests, relatives, or in this case partners up. Gabriella and Taylor were walking by themselves since they were the only two on the plane besides the pilot and it was a CIA plane so it was rarely used if you weren't on assignment.

"I'm not." Gabriella said simply. "I'm way too excited to meet my partner."

"Thanks." Taylor said sarcastically. "And me being your partner meant nothing?" Taylor teased as Gabriella rolled her eyes at how dramatic Taylor was being.

"You know what I mean." Gabriella pointed out as they scanned the airport where hundreds of people were rushing by with bags, luggage, and other things either getting off some other flight or trying to make it to theirs on time. "Do we even know who we're looking for?" Gabriella asked straining her neck trying to see over people's heads.

"Um…from what the Chief said one was an African American male with a…afro?" Taylor more like questioned as she looked down at the index card that she kept in her pocket that had their descriptions on. "Well that's my partner, and your's should have brown hair and blue eyes…wow, now that's a description." Taylor said sarcastically as she put the card back in her pocket and looked around with Gabriella.

"Do you think that's them?" Gabriella asked as she spotted a blur of hair that was in an afro form. Gabriella looked around the crowds and saw that the man with the afro looked no older than Gabriella and was standing next to a guy that had short brown hair, but his well defined figure had his back to them.

Taylor looked to see where Gabriella was looking and sure enough there stood a medium skinned, medium height male with an afro who looked to be talking to someone except the only other person by him was a guy that was facing away from them.

"I don't know. It's not like there are a lot of people you see walking around with an afro, and it's not like we can just go up to them and ask if they're in the CIA." Taylor joked.

Gabriella shrugged, "Worth a shot." She mumbled as she started walking with Taylor following close behind. They didn't have any luggage since it was all shipped over to each of their apartments over the week.

"Gabs, we can't just--" Taylor stopped talking once the male with the afro's eyes looked up and looked the two over with a soft smile on his face as he hit the guy next to him to make him turn around and sure enough…he had blue eyes.

"Montez…Gabriella Montez." Gabriella said with a hard look on her face as the afro guy stuck out his hand and connected them.

"Danforth, Chad Danforth which must make you my new partner." Chad and Gabriella let go of each other and he shook hands with Taylor as Gabriella and Troy looked at each other, neither one of them making the first move.

Gabriella looked over Troy who was tan, had dark brown hair that went just above his eyes, and his eyes! WOW! They were electrifying blue, they looked like they could pierce through anything. Gabriella looked at his arms and saw that he was well built and his chest, with the t-shirt her wore you could definitely make out his six pack.

Troy narrowed his eyes on Gabriella as he looked her over. She was medium height, very slim, and if he had to guess there was no fat on her, just a little muscle. She had dark brown hair, almost black that seemed to match her dark chocolate eyes that seemed to pop out at him, but that wasn't her most attractive feature. Even compared to her perfectly formed chest that seemed to be screeching out to him with the white blouse that she was wearing and the first two buttons undone, or the dark blue jeans that fit her curves perfectly, it was her smile that seemed to draw him in more…but if he had to describe her and if he knew that she wasn't in the CIA, then he would say that she was a Barbie doll who was high maintenance.

Troy saw her had out in front of him and heard her sweet voice talk again, but he wouldn't be fooled that easily. He still hated the idea that him and Chad were separated and Troy had a hunch it was because they lost their mission. "Hi, I guess I'm your new partner." Gabriella said.

"Bolton." Troy said coolly as he didn't offer her his hand in return.

Gabriella coiled her hand back after sending Taylor a questioning glare who just shrugged and Chad let out a sigh. He knew Troy was still beating himself up over losing the little girl, or so Chad thought. No one knew for sure.

"So we've heard a lot about you girls, but let's get going so we can get to know each other more in a more private setting." Chad said putting both of his hands on Gabriella's and Taylor's shoulders and directing them towards the black SUV with Troy trailing behind with narrowed eyes and a small smirk.

Chad opened the back door and Taylor slid in. Gabriella went to go slide in next but Chad put a hand out to stop her and she looked up at him confused. Why couldn't she sit by Taylor? Chad pointed towards the passenger seat before opening it for her and Gabriella nodded at him muffling a thanks before Chad himself got in and sat by his new partner in the back and Troy slamming the drivers car door a little bit louder than what was necessary.

"So…" Chad said and Gabriella and Taylor shared a look that said they both thought Chad was adorable with his bouncing hair in an afro form, and the way he would break the ice between the four of them.

Troy started the ignition as his hard eyes that seemed to be turning a dark blue right now stayed concentrated on the road and getting out of the parking lot.

"So you two seem to have an interesting track record together." Chad commented as Gabriella and Taylor gave him weird looks, ignoring Troy's disapproving grunt here or there.

"Yeah…um, not to be rude or anything, but how do you know about our past, I mean we just met." Taylor said slowly as she eyed Chad up skeptically.

"You would be surprised what information manila folders can hold in them." Chad joked as Gabriella let out a small giggle and Taylor smiled. "No but seriously, our Chief…well your Chief now too, just gave us each a manila folder with your information in it, and Gabriella, your folder is the biggest one I have ever seen." Chad said.

Gabriella gave off an awkward chuckle as she shifted in her seat to look forward instead of back at Chad knowing what was in the folder hoping the two guys in the car wouldn't bring it up. Did they even read it though? If they did Gabriella was sure they would ask her about it.

"Of course Troy here wouldn't let me touch it, but you on the other hand McKessie, I can already tell you're gonna get me into some pretty sticky spots." Chad joked as Taylor felt a blush go up to her cheeks.

"Let's take it one step at a time. First we have to make it past training together, then I'll work you in more." Taylor flirted as Gabriella took this time to look at Troy now as Chad and Taylor continued to get to know each other.

"I didn't read your file." Troy said bluntly in a mono tone voice as Gabriella's eyes lingered over his jaw bone that barely moved it was set so tight.

"Oh…" How was she supposed to react to this. She got the feeling that Troy didn't want to have her be his knew partner. Sure he had some right to be mad, she still was a little upset, but life goes on. At least his ex-partner was still alive and he would get to see him everyday at the office. "Now you won't have to either, I know how big it is." Gabriella joked.

Troy didn't give off any signs that he heard her as he continued his hard gaze to the traffic ahead of him. "When we get to the office, you'll get your new id and a '_pep_' talk with the Chief. After that you'll get your locker, find out where your bed is, that is if you ever spend the night there, and you'll get your new apartment, any questions?" Troy asked in a tone that told Gabriella that he didn't intend on her having any.

Gabriella shook her head no and felt her eyes narrow on the guy in front of her. Just because she was new to his building doesn't mean he could be a total jack ass towards her. If he was going to be cold towards her, then she would just match him even though that sounded childish, no one pushes Gabriella Montez around, not anymore.

"I think I can manage." Gabriella said coolly back and smirked as she looked out the window knowing that got Troy to glance at her out of the corner of his eye. At least that was some response.

* * *

Troy rolled his eyes as he shut the door to the black SUV as he heard Taylor and Chad laughing about something. To Troy it sounded like Chad and Taylor were going to be awesome partners together as oppose to him and Gabriella who didn't say anything to each other after Troy told Gabriella what she was supposed to do with Taylor when they got here.

"I knew that you were on that case, but I never knew you and Gabs actually got to sky dive!" Chad exclaimed with a smile.

"Well…it was Gabi that thought of it. She's really good in tight situations." Taylor admitted as Gabriella felt the redness go to her cheeks as she got out of the car.

Troy walked around and started for the building with Chad and the two girls behind him.

"Is he always like this?" Taylor whispered to Chad who sighed.

Troy could feel their eyes on him, but he didn't care. Right now all he cared about was getting through the three days of training with his 'new' partner and then getting back onto an important case to forget about his last case that was still eating away at him.

He knew that he probably shouldn't be taking his anger out on Gabriella like this. She hadn't done anything yet, but yet he was letting his anger get the better of him and he was somewhat rebelling against his Chief. So what if their building got two new women to work as agents, why did Chad and him have to split up when there were others who would probably be willing to trade with them just to be with two beautiful girls.

But Troy was strong willed and if it wasn't his way, then he would fight for it no matter what. And this new partner thing, just wasn't going to work out, or at least he thought that. He knew that he was going to have some big trust issues, everyone has that, but his trust ran deeper. It was just something he wasn't willing to do until push comes to shove.

"Bolton, glad to see you guys made it back on time for once." The Chief said in an unusual happy manner and his smile got bigger once he saw Chad, Gabriella, and Taylor walk in. "How do you like the new partner?" The Chief nudged Troy while raising his eye brows twice as Troy and him both looked over at the three as it looked like Chad was introducing the two new girls to the secretaries and some of the other agents that actually got up out of their seats to talk to the two new agents.

Troy shrugged, "She's no Chad." Troy said coolly as his eyes never left Gabriella. The way her smile just illuminated her face, the way her tan skin brought out her dark chocolate eyes that if Troy wasn't being a hard ass right now could find himself getting lost in them.

Troy shook his head. He had to get these thoughts out of his head, if he couldn't trust her then he couldn't think of her right now. He had to keep his work priorities straight.

"Have you looked over her file yet. It's amazing." The Chief went on as Troy nodded his head as he lied, watching Gabriella talk to Jason about something. "I mean she's succeeds in everything she does. I'm just glad she transferred here, we can definitely use a change here." The Chief said before patting Troy on the back and walking over to the group that has formed by the secretaries' desk.

Troy narrowed his eyes on Gabriella as she shook the Chief's hand and it seemed as if her eyes looked at Troy for a quick second before she gave her full attention to the Chief. It seemed to him that she had the Chief already wrapped around her finger and she hasn't even been on the job for a day.

Troy found that strange, was there something the Chief wasn't tell him? It wasn't like him to welcome the new people to the office like he knew them all his life, maybe there was something else going on and Troy knew exactly what he would need to do to learn anything. He would have to read through the manila folder that was as thick as an apple, but a part of Troy didn't want too. He didn't know why, but he just didn't want to read her life story to get to know her even though he knew that she and Taylor each had their own manila folders to read about so Troy knew she would have an equal chance to read about his life story.

Maybe he didn't want to read her file because that meant moving on from his old life of where Chad and him would always be together, side by side, having each other's backs and then that little girl went missing and things just went downhill from there. So now this was a new chapter in his life that he didn't want and reading that folder would just make things more real.

"Bolton, you coming?!" The Chief called and Troy snapped his head up and saw that Chad, Taylor, Gabriella, and the Chief were standing by the Chief's office door as Troy saw that some of the other guys were back at their desks or still standing at the clump by the door staring at Taylor and Gabriella up and down.

Troy gave the guys disgusted stares as he knew what they were all thinking. Only one or two of them were married, and some of them were dating, but other than that they were all single and their office just got two new hot girls…things would definitely be interesting.

Troy followed the group of four people into the office and sat down in the empty seat next to Chad as his eyes scanned over and connected with Gabriella's for a second before The Chief spoke up.

"So in two hours you four are expected to go to the bottom floor underground and start your training and I know that you probably haven't been in training since your rookie days, but…we just want you guys to do good and exceed together and to get there we don't want to send you guys off on a mission when you hardly know each other…know how to work with each other." The Chief explained

There was a silence as Troy saw that the time was noon and the trainings were going to be at 2 o'clock. The Chief cleared his throat. "Well, I'll show you two around while Danforth and Bolton here read over some things and do whatever the hell they do while they think I'm not around." The Chief joked as Taylor and Gabriella laughed lightly at this as Chad and Troy shared a little nervous look.

Sure Troy seemed like a stick in the mud right now, but when he was on better terms with his job and things were going good in his life, he would actually have fun, and it shocked some people.

"Bye Tay, Gabs." Chad nodded as the two girls got up to leave and Troy couldn't help but roll his eyes at how Chad already had nicknames for them, but Troy couldn't help but notice how confident Gabriella walked. How her legs seemed to just carry her out without making any nose, her hips swaying from side to side as if directing him towards her, and the way her hair bounced with each step she took.

Troy noticed Chad getting up so he followed and followed them out with the Chief behind. "See you Chad…Bolton." Gabriella said quietly as she offered Troy a little smile as he just stared at her. He knew she only called him by his last name because that was the only name he offered her.

"Holy fuck, they are hot." Chad breathed out as Troy rolled his eyes and walked away from him to his desk where it seemed some of the guys were at right now. "And did you read her record yet because if she's anything like what Taylor says then she's like fire." Chad kept on following Troy to his own desk.

"No, and I don't intend to read her 'life story'. That's just…weird." Troy said as the guys around them stopped talking and turned towards them.

"She's gonna read her file about you, and then what are you gonna do then?" Chad retorted, but before Troy could comeback with something to say some of the other guys started talking.

"Oh my God, are you guys sure they're agents?" Zeke asked. "Because they look more like…like…not agents that get down and dirty."

Chad laughed as he patted Zeke on the back. "Smooth." Chad teased.

"Hey, you guys all saw them." Zeke defended himself as he put his two hands in the air defensively.

"And you guys get to train with them. Your hands are gonna be all over them." Jason continued.

"They're both nice too." Chad said and Troy sighed. Although Gabriella seemed nice at first around him, but then in the car he could tell that she had snappy comebacks if she needed them.

"Hey, did it say anything about their old boyfriends in their folders?" Jason asked.

"It said who they were, but it didn't go into detail. Man, how do they get that much information on one person? The CIA is kind of creepy now that I think about it." Chad though out loud.

"What about Gabs?" Zeke asked and Troy gave him a double take. Since when did everyone have a nickname for her. "What?" Zeke asked at the strange face Troy knew he was giving him.

"Nothing." Troy shook off. "Um…I wouldn't know since I didn't read her file." Troy said as he leaned back in his black computer chair and put his feet up on the desk in a relaxing manner.

"Dude, tell me that you wouldn't like to hit that!" Jason exclaimed as there were two giggles and the four guys instantly froze up. They all turned around slowly and saw Gabriella and Taylor standing there with two boxes. "Oh, hey Gabi." Jason said as his cheeks burned a deep red.

Gabriella smiled sweetly as she threw a bag of something onto Troy's desk perfectly as it landed without knocking anything over. Troy raised his eye brows as her as Gabriella shrugged. "I'm allergic and Tay didn't want them, go nuts." Gabriella said as she gave him a cheeky smile and Chad automatically reached for the bag of peanuts on Troy's desk and ate them.

"You're allergic?" Troy asked dumbly in a tone that said he didn't believe her as Gabriella set the box she was carrying down on the desk that was on the other side of Troy that had been empty for a while now.

Troy didn't know why his voice sounded like that, he was just shocked that she would think of him as she got her lunch, after all they had only known each other for not even a day.

"Yeah, I would think you would know that if you read my file." Gabriella said in a simple tone and went back to unloading her stuff into her new desk as Taylor had the desk in front of hers. Gabriella smiled as she opened up one of the drawers and put in some paper and binders, it was now obvious to her that Troy didn't read at all about her because that was on the first page about her since it was one of the first things a partner should know about her just in case something was to happen. At least that's one thing she could trust in him. He didn't lie to her in the car.

Troy looked down at the bottom drawer to his desk and almost felt guilty that he didn't read it, but shook it off since it's not like she read his…yet. Troy looked up and noticed that Chad, Jason, and Zeke were all back to their own desks and as he swiveled around in his desk and saw Gabriella looking at him with curiosity in her eyes.

He looked at her and kinked an eye brow as if asking her silently, 'you like what you see?' and Gabriella rolled her eyes before turning back to get everything settled down in her new desk, but something else stood out and this somewhat scared Troy…her desktop held no pictures, it held no stupid magnets or objects, it was bare. Just like his, and in some ways that told him that maybe they had more things in common than he thought, but he knew differently than to trust her right away. But one thing is for sure…Gabriella wasn't going away.

**Author's Note--What did you guys think? This is my first story and I'm really excited to write it, but I don't know if I'm doing an okay job? And I know that these first two chapters were a bit slow, but it's the beginning and some information I just have to put in right away to get the story going. Review please and thank you.**


	3. Ropes

Gabriella felt her high curly pony tail bobbing on the top of her head as it was in a pony tail with bobby pins in the back holding it up since her hair only went to the top of her shoulders and her bottom hairs would barely stay up if it wasn't for them.

Gabriella felt the sweat collecting on her forehead as she jumped at a constant rate. She really wanted to stop jumping and just swipe at her forehead to keep the sweat from rolling down the side of her face and nose, but she looked around and saw that Tay looked like her and Chad and Bolton already had sweat collecting on their necks. So Gabriella didn't feel bad or out of shape as she continued to use her wrists and turn the rope clockwise as her legs lifted her up off the ground at a fast pace movement.

Gabriella was breathing through her teeth as she picked up her pace as their group of trainers which consisted of two guys and two girls were writing things down on their clip boards while talking to each other. Gabriella looked over at them and saw the wedding rings on the two girls' hands along with one of the guy trainers who had dark brown hair that was short in a buzz cut. The other guy who had sandy blonde hair, a very muscular tan body, with two dimples, and Gabriella couldn't remember if he had a girlfriend or not.

Gabriella looked at the four trainers. They had been doing conditioning for about a half an hour now and right now they were jump roping which Gabriella didn't have to do since her last training session which was in her college days. But she bared through it since she was strong on the inside and out. Gabriella smiled as she watched the four discuss things, it was obvious that the brunette haired girl was married to the brown haired guy since they were always flirting with each other and Gabriella was pretty sure she saw them kissing when she first entered the training room that was decked out with a boxing ring, punching bags, a rock wall, jump ropes, weights, and the latest machines.

But Gabriella was sure that the blonde girl and the other guy who haven't even told them their names yet weren't together since in the last thirty minutes the four agents had heard them get into little arguments left and right.

"Alright, that's great. Get some water." The brunette called out as Gabriella dropped the rope to the floor followed by Tay as they headed over to their water bottles that were on the benches by the doors that either led to the girls locker room or the guys.

Gabriella bent over in her short black shorts and her black training bra to get her bottle along with Tay's as she threw it perfectly to Tay and having her catch it perfectly as if she was expecting it. Just then the two girl trainers walked over to Tay and her.

"Hey, I'm Faith." The brunette said as she stuck out her hand to Gabriella. "I don't think we had proper introductions earlier. And this is my friend and other trainer Peyton." Faith introduced as Gabriella nodded and smiled as she thought she recognized her from somewhere. Gabriella shook both of their hands along with Tay as Gabriella saw out of the corner of her eye the two guy trainers talking to Chad and Troy.

"And the brown haired guy over there is named Nate. He's married to Faith." Peyton explained as she looked at Gabriella like she was trying to decide something.

"And the other one?" Taylor asked.

"Oh." Peyton said as she seemed to pop out of her thinking. "That's my partner for training, Josh. We aren't married." Peyton stressed.

"In fact they don't get along at all." Faith added as the girls all shared a laugh and the four guys came over. "So Montez, that name sounds familiar." Faith said as Petyon's face lit up and Josh rolled his eyes.

"And my brilliant partner has that face again." Josh mocked as he looked at Tay and Gabriella. "Hi, I'm Josh."

Gabriella nodded and chose to ignore him getting caught up in what Peyton was thinking. She did seem familiar, if only she knew her last name. "I used to live here. It was my hometown." Gabriella said to Peyton as the others engaged into small talk.

"Gabriella Montez?" Peyton asked and Gabriella nodded. "As in Carlos's daughter, the old Chief before this one now?" Peyton asked as Gabriella nodded her head. As long as Peyton didn't bring up how he died or the mission he was on, Gabriella would be good and would be able to control her emotions.

"Wait, Chief?" Josh asked leaving the conversation Nate, Faith, Chad, and Taylor were having as Troy seemed to be standing by Chad, but his body was turned so that he could listen to what Gabriella, his partner was talking about.

Peyton rolled her eyes. "Could you mind your own business?" Peyton shook her head disapprovingly as Josh stood his ground next to Gabriella. "As in Anna's daughter? The last female agent to work here until you two?" Peyton exclaimed excitedly as her smile shone on her face that looked to be about 30 years old, only a couple of years older than Gabriella herself so there was no way possible that she was working there when Gabriella's parents were there, unless her parents used to work there also.

"Yeah…that would be me." Gabriella admitted sheepishly as she had a small smile.

"Oh my God, they're like legendary. People are still talking about them, it's just such a shame how their lives ended all those years ago." Peyton said and Gabriella knew she meant nothing by it but that still didn't mean it didn't hurt.

Gabriella let out a sharp breath. "They got in, they got the girl, the girl is safe, and that's all that matters." Gabriella said as she looked distantly down at the ground and by now everyone was listening. "Hey, let's get back to work. We only have three days to learn to work together." Gabriella said cheerfully.

Peyton offered her a smile that Gabriella returned. "They were great people. I only got to meet your mom once when my mom used to work here and I went to the day care, I guess she was dropping you off." Peyton said.

Gabriella nodded her head. "That probably was me. She was a great mom, but hey, look at it this way, she never lost a mission, not even her last mission." Gabriella said again in a cheerful tone.

"Troy and Gabriella, you two are with me and Peyton." Josh said looking down at his clipboard as Faith had already pulled Tay and Chad away with Nate.

Gabriella and Troy looked at each other briefly and this was the first time Gabriella noticed Troy had no shirt on. She looked over his body briefly as Josh and Peyton were busy setting something up and noticed he had a nice six pack. His arms were strong and looked sturdy, but she would soon find out as she was sure they would be doing something together and for the first time since she got there that didn't sound too bad.

"Hey." Troy called out with a tone that Gabriella hadn't heard yet. Gabriella whipped her head around as she froze in her tracks to turn her body towards Troy's who was just wearing black athletic shorts now. "I didn't know you were related to Carlos Montez." Troy whispered as if it was a big secret.

Gabriella shrugged, "Yeah, now you know. What's it to yah?"

"Nothing, it's just he was killed by my biggest enemy." Troy said as he started walking over to the boxing ring where the two trainers were.

"Make that something else we have in common." Gabriella muttered referring to how Jenson is her biggest enemy too. She thought Troy didn't hear her as he just kept walking, but to her unknown surprise he had and he couldn't help but smirk a little, at least she had a good taste in bad guys.

* * *

That day they hadn't worked on any trust, communication, or partner drills, but Troy was still completely wiped out. And as much as he hated to admit, maybe he was wrong about Gabriella. She seemed like she could hold her own and when she was in the boxing ring with Josh doing a defense drill as Josh came at her swinging full force, she held her own and that surprised Troy.

He stepped into the locker room that had air conditioning as Chad followed behind him. Troy blew out a breath as he sat on one of the benches to take off his shoes. He reckoned that even if they had done some of the stuff new partners should learn together like how to work together, he doubted they would've been able to do that, but what did he know nowadays? They would soon find out tomorrow.

"Dude, did you have to wrestle Gabs?" Chad asked as he flung his shirt off into an open locker and grabbing a towel.

Troy shook his head no. They hadn't done anything like that, and he found that strange. That was the whole point of why they were doing this stupid training for three days instead of being out on the street helping people.

"No…we did defense, speed, agility, and basic stuff like that." Troy explained.

"So you hated it." Chad more like stated as he started heading over to the showers with the towel wrapped around his sweaty body.

Troy finished stripping off his shorts and boxers as he wrapped his own towel around himself. "I didn't hate it, I just don't like it." Troy called as he started his water to the shower stall he was in as a thought ran through his mind. _Gabriella's sweaty body under him as his arms were holding him up and her fingers trailing down his chest, and taking a firm grasp of his_--Troy shook his head, there was no way that he could be thinking like that right now.

After Troy got out of the shower and got dressed in his blue jeans and t-shirt he said goodbye to Chad before walking out into the training room again. He looked around and saw that it was empty. Troy eyed the rope that was hanging from the ceiling and had a bell at the top.

He let out a breath of air as he felt his competitive side come out again. He can't believe that Gabriella beat him at climbing that simple rope. Sure he beat her in rock climbing, strength drills, and boxing against Josh, but still…Troy wasn't used to anyone being better than him.

He remembered watching Gabriella move effortlessly up the rope as her body gliding up. Troy couldn't shake the sight of Josh smirking up at Gabriella as she brought herself down to the ground, in fact he couldn't stop staring at her for the two hours like she was a piece of meat. Even though Troy wasn't Gabriella's biggest fan right now mostly because he was still brooding over the whole partner change, he still didn't like this guy looking at her like she was a piece of meat.

"Hey, do you know where Josh went?" Troy heard a voice ask as his body tensed up and then relaxed once he knew that it was Gabriella. What the hell did she need him for? He probably wanted to just get in her pants and she was just falling for it.

Troy saw Gabriella look at him weirdly as he found that he was just staring at her. He shook his head as he scratched the back of his neck. Troy saw Gabriella roll her eyes in an annoyed way. "Sorry I asked." Gabriella said as she started walking away and Troy rolled his eyes just like what Gabriella did a couple of seconds ago.

"Wait!" Troy called out as Gabriella turned and looked at him with a small smile. Maybe their partnership wouldn't be that bad. Troy couldn't help but notice the two top buttons on Gabriella's white blouse that was undone. It didn't make her look like a slut, which was a good thing, but yet it still was enough to lure him in with curiosity.

"Yeah?" Troy had no idea how she could go from a sharp tone to all of a sudden a soft one, but it reminded him of himself.

"What do you need him for anyways?" Troy scoffed as he then realized he sounded jealous, but he was just curious. It was his natural instinct to care about people and know that they're safe, wasn't it?

"Excuse me?" Gabriella asked with an innocent face matching her voice as she was obviously taken back by Troy's question.

Troy rolled his eyes at how defensive Gabriella was, although maybe she had some reason to be. "Nothing, it's just…I don't know where he went, when you went to change he got a phone call and wrote something down on a post it note and left." Troy told her as Gabriella had a 'duh' look on her face.

"Thanks." Gabriella said in a monotone voice and Troy turned around in his spot to look at the taunting rope ahead of him. Just then Gabriella's phone went off and Troy turned around again to see her take out her slick small phone and read a text message. Gabriella put her phone away and Troy saw her smile. "I guess I'll see you later, but let me give you a tip." Gabriella said as Troy looked at her. "If you stare at the rope, it's not gonna make you any better."

Troy let out a huff as Gabriella turned to walk away. Oh yeah, this was just gonna be a great partnership, of course sarcastically. "That was Josh, wasn't it." Troy more like stated than questioned as he couldn't just let her go thinking she had won with a snappy comment like that.

Gabriella stopped and turned around to look at Troy once again. She was starting to get sick of him already. "So what if it was?" And Troy knew right away that it was.

"I'm a CIA agent Montez, not an idiot." Troy said coolly as he turned around and was staring the rope as he felt Gabriella walk up beside him and saw out of the corner of his eye that she was standing right by him. "Don't you have to be with Josh right now?"

Gabriella missed a beat as she looked at Troy for a second. "Why don't you like me?" Troy could make out the innocence in her voice as she was truly asking for an honest answer.

Troy let out a muffled snort, "You must be mistaken Montez because I've never said I didn't like you."

"Fine, whatever." Troy could hear the annoyance in her voice. "I don't even know why I bothered to try to get along with you. Forgive me for wanting to get along with my _**partner, **_who I'm probably gonna have to work with for a good amount of years." Gabriella said as her eyes narrowed ahead of her.

"Whatever, you believe what you want. I have more important things to do other than share my feelings with you." Troy said in a mocking voice.

"And what would that be, watching a rope?" Gabriella retorted as she rolled her eyes at how childish they both sounded.

Troy felt his blood boil as his competitive side started to come out and he turned so that he was facing Gabriella now having a good head over her. "Just because you beat me at this one thing doesn't mean that you can poke fun at it." Troy warned. "It doesn't make you better than me."

"What the fuck are you talking about?!" Gabriella exclaimed as she turned away from the rope and looked at Troy full on. "I know I'm not better than you! Are you happy?! I know that!" Gabriella shouted crystal clear to make sure Troy heard her without any problems. "Bolton, I'm not stupid! I know you have the upper hand in probably everything that we're gonna do! But I swear to God, I won't let you intimidate me from my job, so if you have a problem with me then tell me right now so we can just get this out in the open." Gabriella said as Troy swore her eye color got darker which he had only seen happen in one other person, counting himself.

"Fine." Troy huffed out taking a step closer to Gabriella. "You want me to tell you what the hell my problem is?" Troy asked as Gabriella narrowed her eyes to match his own and nodded her head with confidence. "I have problem with stuck up bitches that think just because their daddies got them into a good college and they lived the high life in LA that they can just waltz right in and interrupt other people's lives." Troy bellowed.

He saw Gabriella coil back and she completely lost all her confidence as her bottom lip was parted from her top lip slightly and she seemed to be holding her breath without even knowing it as her eyes lightened up and flashed an insecure look.

"If you would've read any of my file then you would know that neither one of my parents lived to see the day of me even starting high school." Gabriella stated in a voice that held no emotion at all that it sent chills throughout Troy's spine. "I worked my way up just like you did, and it's not my fault that people know of me from my parents who were a hell of a team that never let people down Bolton. And I refuse to let you blame me for messing up your fucking picture perfect life and taking Chad's spot." Gabriella started walking away and that was when Troy knew, he knew that one of her only weaknesses was her parents, and with that information in the wrong person's hands, it could turn out bad for both of them.

Troy turned his head and glared at the stupid rope ahead of him. He let Gabriella's words of him having the upper hand on her run through his mind and he shook his head as he ran his hand through his hair before turning to walk out. She might think that, but Troy thought otherwise. Starting with the fact that she was one of the only people Troy knew besides the criminals that would stand up to him and his bull shit attitude right now, but he refused to be paired up with some girl and lose another mission. This was just something Gabriella would have to prove to him, that she isn't who he thinks she is.

* * *

**Author's Note- Please review, and thanks to all who have already done that. They really motivate me to write more, so thanks.**


	4. Fake Death

Gabriella was breathing heavily as Peyton blew the whistle. So far they had been in training for two hours now and they weren't even halfway done. The only things that they did so far was conditioning, some defense drills, and now she was done with her boxing technique as it was Troy's turn to go against Josh.

Gabriella found that it was a little harder than yesterday for her, and she had a theory that it was because when she went to get a quick dinner last night with Josh as friends, he asked her out for a real date, and she kindly replied that she wasn't dating right now since she just got out of a relationship, which was partly true even though she wasn't even affected by the break up since she had no connection with him in the first place.

Gabriella stepped on the bottom rope of the two outlining the boxing ring and ducked under it as she jumped out and Josh stayed in while Peyton threw him a water bottle. "That was great Gabs." Peyton said as Gabriella undid her right boxing glove that she found to be super light, but there was something else wrong with her hands. She chucked her glove down on the ground somewhere over by the bench where Troy was wrapping his hands up before he got into the ring.

Gabriella looked down at the white tape around her knuckles and saw that some spots were turning a dark red. They weren't big spots, more like lady bug size to ant size, but still. They kind of stung even though Gabriella knew that she had endured worst in her life.

"Nice hands." Troy said as Gabriella walked over to him next to her own water bottle.

Gabriella looked down again before ripping off her left glove that was very light compared to the other gloves Gabriella was used to working with at her old agency. Gabriella started unwrapping the left hand that had a couple of blood marks indicating she ripped her skin and shrugged.

"I don't see why they bother making us wear this stuff if you're gonna end bleeding through it." Gabriella muttered as she tossed the two long strips of tape into the garbage and examined her beat up knuckles that had dry blood on them.

"God girl, we're gonna have to get heavier gloves." Peyton said in her cheerful voice coming up to Troy and Gabriella. "So after Troy does this then I think we're ready to see how well you two work together." Peyton informed them and Gabriella and Troy both shared a glance at each other, both with anything but amused happy faces on. "You two look like you'll work out perfectly with each other." With that Peyton walked away as Troy and Gabriella both let out little snorts at how wrong Peyton was.

They both looked at each other again and Troy looked Gabriella up and down. "How was Josh last night?" Troy smirked as Gabriella rolled her eyes.

"Just because we're partners doesn't mean I have to talk to you." Gabriella sneered as she started walking away from Troy to go clean off her knuckles.

* * *

"You two have to TALK to each other!" Peyton yelled as Josh once again went in the air and shot the basketball only to have it go in once again.

"I can't be guarding two people Montez." Troy warned her as Gabriella and him stopped on the basketball court that was in another room connected with the main training room. Gabriella couldn't believe that this was what they were doing for training to work together…playing basketball!

Gabriella Montez did not play basketball. She had never touched a basketball in her life. The only time she had seen a basketball was on TV and once she did she would change the channel, but there they were. Learning to trust, anticipate, and work together on a basketball court.

"This is pointless. I have no fucking idea how to play." Gabriella complained as Peyton and Josh just watched the two, at least they were talking now.

"At least we agree on something." Troy mumbled as Gabriella narrowed her eyes. She had to just keep reminding herself that it was just one and a half more days of this and then she would be on some case even though she highly doubted this learning how to trust each other camp was gonna stick with them.

"What is this even supposed to be teaching us? Because working out on the streets there is no basketball." Gabriella pointed out to Peyton and Josh.

"You need to be able to read each other, anticipate the other one's moves, work together as a team no matter what task you have to do." Peyton said. "But I think we should stop and work on something that you two are more familiar with ." Peyton looked at Josh who shrugged and Gabriella got the feeling that he could really care less what they did.

"Yeah, like I can do that with _**her**_." Troy said pointing at Gabriella with a disapproving look on his face as Gabriella narrowed her eyes.

"And what is that supposed to mean. It's not my fault that I've never played before and you're just pissed that I beat you at rope climbing again." Gabriella sneered in his face as Troy took a threatening step closer and Gabriella saw his eyes narrow more so she copied his actions.

"Guys!" Peyton yelled. "Let's just go work on something else. I think we have something that will fit your style." Peyton said slyly as Troy and Gabriella both gave her a suspicious look.

Gabriella followed behind the three wondering what did Peyton mean by fitting her style. Peyton and Josh stopped by a full length mirror that seemed out of place on the black cement wall that was in a little room connected to the basketball court. Gabriella looked at them strangely as she saw Josh reach up and press down on something in the corner of the mirror up on top and then all of a sudden the mirror opened up and Peyton and Josh walked through like it was no big deal that a mirror used to be there.

Gabriella saw that Troy didn't go in as he stood there and moved out of the way. "Ladies first." Troy said with a sickly sweet tone in his voice that Gabriella could automatically point out the mocking in his voice.

"You're closer. I insist." Gabriella said not wanting to go first, as the only reason being Troy offered her that.

"Look, if they killed us they would have a better chance killing the first one to walk through, now once again…ladies first." Troy smirked as Gabriella rolled her eyes.

She was getting sick of Troy that day, at least they only had an hour and a half left and she could leave to go back to her new apartment flat and just crash. Yeah, it must've been hard losing a case a week ago, and then finding out that you're getting a new partner, but he should at least be over the new partner thing by now and from what Gabriella saw when Troy was around other people he was okay and laid back, so why was he so cold towards her? It's not like she was the guy who kidnapped the little girl two weeks ago.

Gabriella glared at Troy letting him know how mad she was as she walked in first not wanting Peyton or Josh to get mad that they were still fighting. Gabriella heard Troy's footsteps behind her as she picked up her pace and entered a grim looking room that had no doors, windows, or mirrors to it. It basically looked like a huge warehouse room, but it only held a chair with a huge metal contraption by it, locks, and keys.

"Now, do you guys trust each other?" Josh asked as Gabriella and Troy shared a look with him that told him, 'you got to be kidding me?' "Okay, never mind. I think I can figure it out."

"I think you two will appreciate this then." Peyton said as Josh rolled his eyes.

"And there goes my optimistic partner." Josh muttered as Peyton rolled her eyes this time. Gabriella couldn't believe that Troy and her were supposed to learn to trust each other by learning by these two that couldn't have a proper conversation with each other either.

Gabriella snapped out of her thoughts as Peyton continued with the directions. "So Gabriella here will be tied up to that chair with the chains."

Gabriella looked over at the chair that looked to be the kind in the dentist office that lowered you, or raised you and were blue and squishy. Gabriella saw the chains also and knew that they had to weigh a lot since they were huge, they would be chains to use if you ever had to hold a rhinoceros down.

"And then you see that contraction over there by the chair?" Josh asked as Gabriella and Troy both nodded and Gabriella hoped with all hope that she wouldn't be strapped down with that thing also. How was this fair, just because she was a girl, it meant she would be the victim in this scenario and Troy would play the hero part! "It will be strapped onto Gabriella's head and jaw. You guys have never probably seen this thing yet, and it can be highly dangerous. You see, it has a timer and you set it to whatever time you want, and when time's up it sets off a clamp and it snaps your head along with your jaw so you can't scream out." Josh said as if it was nothing.

"And what job does Bolton have if I'm the one tied up?" Gabriella asked with a little attitude. The two people that were supposed to be on their side were all of a sudden throwing them into the lions den without preparation, and worst yet, she had to trust Troy in this and over the years Gabriella learned that trust isn't something you get in three days.

"He's gonna be given a set of keys and he will have a minute to unlock you." Peyton said as Gabriella looked at Troy with wide eyes and her heart beat picked up. A minute!?

"A minute?" Troy asked skeptically as Gabriella saw that there were no signs of concern, freight, nervousness.

"A minute, shall we get started?" Peyton asked as Josh started walking over to the metal death trap.

"Wait, how is this based on trust. It's more like luck that I won't DIE." Gabriella said making sure that she emphasized the last word.

"Scared Montez?" Troy teased with a smirk as Gabriella saw his eyes twinkle with mischief.

"How about we switch positions and I'll ask you that then?" Gabriella retorted as Peyton smiled at the two obviously seeing something they weren't.

"Well, Troy's part if kind of based on luck if he isn't smart enough to match a couple of keys to one lock, and your part is more of the trusting. You're gonna have to just trust that Troy has luck on his side."

"And what if he doesn't?" Gabriella asked frantically. Usually she was more put together at this, but having your life in someone else's hands sucked right now. Actually, it sucked anytime and Gabriella bet anyone would back her up on that.

"Then…let's not think of that. No one has failed this. Tay and Chad did this yesterday." Peyton said

Gabriella sighed as she still saw the smug look on Troy's face. "And don't worry. You and Troy are gonna switch spots after he unlocks you." Peyton said as Troy's face dropped and Gabriella let out a triumphant laugh.

"See who's nervous now." Gabriella taunted as she waltzed over to Josh who gave her a small smile as Troy saw Gabriella's face light up instantly.

"You know…" Peyton started. "You two are either gonna make it in this business or end up killing each other." Peyton chuckled to herself as if it was some joke and walked over to the other two leaving Troy staring in shock before snapping out of it and following behind.

* * *

"I can't believe you actually left me to die!" Gabriella screeched as it was just Troy and her now in the training room they started out in near the locker rooms. It was just them there and Troy could see the fire coming off of Gabriella and he could tell that what he chose to do earlier affected her when it came time for her to unlock him.

Troy had to admit, that it was a fun way of testing their trust on the other one, but it was a little extreme, but when they found out that it didn't actually crack your head off when the one minute was up, Gabriella relaxed a lot since she knew that she wouldn't die and then have a chance of killing Troy herself.

Troy bit his lip, but quickly composed himself as he glared hardly at her. "I did what I had to do." Troy stated even though he knew that was bull. He had stopped trying before the timer went off.

"Yeah, to keep you alive, what about your partner?!" Gabriella exclaimed throwing her hands up and Troy couldn't help but stare at how her training bra covered chest rose and fell with each of her heavy breaths.

"Hey, what good would it have been if both of us died instead of just one?…Plus I came back didn't I?! You just pushed me away." Troy shot back as he took a step closer to her. He knew that he was wrong, but usually when you were in that situation as before the victim would be pleading with you and thanking you, not screaming at you and cursing you to hell.

"And I suppose you would tell that to a little girl or boy!" Gabriella took her step forward and Troy narrowed his eyes even more on her. He knew what he did was wrong, but she was really asking for it.

"_Okay, so I'll blow this whistle and you can start Troy." Peyton instructed as Josh held the stop watch and Gabriella was already strapped in._

_Troy fingered the set of twenty keys nervously as he looked down at them. Peyton said that there was only a couple of keys, this was more than a couple for only a minute of time. Troy knew he had to automatically rule out the keys that looked nothing like the one lock or else he wouldn't have any time and he saw the nervousness in Gabriella's eyes. There was no trust, but Troy didn't blame her for that, he wasn't looking forward to Gabriella doing this to him either. Hell, he didn't think anyone would want to do this, but if Chad and Taylor did it, then they could too._

"_Are you ready?" Josh asked as Troy looked up and his eyes locked on Gabriella's who lifted her thumb up measly to indicate she would be as ready as ever._

_Troy's eyes stayed on Gabriella's. It wasn't that he didn't like her, he just…he didn't know why he was so cold towards her these two past days, maybe it was because she seemed perfect and that just ticked him off. If only he read her file…_

"_Um…yeah." Troy said and instantly Josh blew the whistle surprising both Gabriella and Troy as Troy hurriedly ran over to Gabriella and located the lock to the machine on the side of her head._

_Troy looked at the first three keys and automatically ruled out the first two since they looked too long. He heard Gabriella squirm beneath him in the chair that she sat in as the metal chains clanked together and he figured she was at least trying to free her arms as they were practically glued to her body and she might just be small enough to wriggle one arm out compared to him._

_The seconds were ticking down as ten flew by and he had only tried one key out. This was a stupid test Troy decided. He didn't think that he would be able to forgive himself if he lost his new partner during training! TRAINING! That was just unheard of and he wasn't going to be the first one to start a record._

_Troy flicked through the keys ruling them out left and right deciding they either were misshaped, too big, or too short, the last thing he needed was to jam an unwanted key in the lock and having it break so that they were screwed. Troy heard Gabriella gasp as her right arm that was on the side with Troy closest slip out of the chains so she could bend at her elbow._

_Troy knew that the first thing he had to do was get this head piece off or else what was the point of getting the chains off? Gabriella's hand reached up and started pulling at the piece in her mouth as she spit it out and Troy figured it was a mouth guard, but what the hell would Josh give Gabriella a mouth guard for if this thing would end up bursting? It wasn't going to do anything._

"_Come on Bolton." Gabriella said frantically as Josh held up the clock and they only had 30 seconds._

"_I'm trying." Troy said as his nerves showed through his voice and his fingers slipped and he dropped the keys. _

"_What was that?!" Gabriella exclaimed as the sound of keys clattering to the cement ground could be heard echoing through the empty creepy room and Troy quickly picked them up and forgot what key he was on. He was near the end, he knew that…but which one? This was so unlike him, usually he was so put together where he was ready for everything, but he was not good with these things. He was good with guns, hand grenades, planning, fighting, using his strength, not unlocking things when the pressure was on._

"_It's gonna be okay Montez." Troy said even though a six year old could point out that Troy wasn't sure himself. He wasn't even 10 percent sure and that scared him. He was always sure, that's why he always had a full proof plan. _

"_Twenty seconds." Peyton called out._

"_Bolton, hurry the hell up!" Gabriella demanded as if that would make him work faster._

_Troy narrowed his eyes on her, he was scared, there was no denying it as he continued with a key, then another key. This was pointless and he was starting to believe that none of these keys worked._

"_I'm trying. Just hold on." Troy said as he took a deep breath and Gabriella's hands started pulling on the contraption around her head as Troy noticed her eyes were shut as she was also breathing heavily and he was starting to not even trust himself._

"_Go to hell Bolton. Do not tell me to hold on when you're free to go anytime." Gabriella seethed and Troy found that she had some nerve to fight with him at a time like this._

"_Fine." Troy said dangerously low. "You want me to leave, I will." Troy threatened as his hands still tried to pry the lock open._

"_10 seconds!" Josh called out._

"_You're not doing so hot Bolton." Gabriella taunted and Troy froze. "That's right, just quit. You better get out of here before it blows up."_

_Troy dropped the keys on the ground. It felt like he wasn't even controlling his actions. He knew a lot better to never do this, but Gabriella was asking for it. He stepped back and saw that Gabriella looked so brave as Peyton called out, "Five seconds._

_Troy shut his eyes as he knew that they were glossed over. He had failed. He had failed his partner and now she was going to have to pay, Troy stepped forward and he put his hand on Gabriella's shoulder._

"_I'm not leaving." Troy said roughly, at least he would somewhat be known for as brave and not someone who got killed in training._

"_Yeah…you are." Gabriella said softly and Troy didn't know how she did it, or how she got enough strength, but her right hand went up to his chest in one swift movement and pushed him back as you could hear the timer go off and Troy stumbled back._

_Everyone was silent as nothing happened, but five seconds later something unlocked and the mask that was around Gabriella's head, snapped open and Gabriella moved. She pushed it off of her with her right hand as she was still strapped down to the chair._

"_Oh my God." Troy breathed out as Josh went over to Gabriella with a key to get her out of the chains and Peyton came up to Troy and patted him on the back._

"_You didn't pass, but…at least you care enough for her to die with her." Peyton said softly so only he heard. _

_Troy's eyes went wide as he saw Gabriella sit up in the chair as Josh took the chains off. There were red marks on her visible skin from the chains rubbing up against her and being so tight._

"_It wasn't about her. It was about not leaving anyone behind." Troy said as his heart rate still was racing at a hundred miles per minute._

* * *

"Whatever." Troy said as he turned away from Gabriella. He couldn't stop thinking about what if that was a real contraption? She wouldn't be there right now, and that just ate at his skin.

"Yeah, whatever. One more day of this." Gabriella said out loud and Troy couldn't help the smile that came over his face. She sounded just like him except she was a girl. "What?" Gabriella asked and Troy supposed she saw that smile on his face.

Troy shrugged, "Nothing, you just remind me of someone." Troy said as he was looking at the damn rope again in the corner connected to the ceiling.

"That's really getting at you, isn't it?" Gabriella asked as she turned her body to look at the rope also.

Troy shrugged, "Just a little."

Gabriella sighed, "Come on, I'll help you." Gabriella said as she started for the rope. Troy looked at the spot that she used to attend, back to the spot she was at now. "For a price." She added slyly as Troy rolled his eyes.

"What would that be?" He asked as he slowly walked over to where she was.

Gabriella turned away from the rope and hopped into the boxing ring. "You help me with my upper cut." Gabriella said with a smile.

Troy didn't know what possessed him to do this, maybe it was the fact he thought he killed her, or she was going to do something in return for him, but he threw her a pair of boxing gloves, and grabbed some for himself before going into the ring also.

Troy didn't know what changed his attitude that night when he was showing Gabriella how much weight to transfer when throwing a punch, but maybe what some people say is true. That you see things differently when faced with death, or at least in this case…fake death.

* * *

**Author's Note-- Tell me what you think because I personally don't really like this chapter that much. Review please and thank you. You guys really make my day.**


	5. Run

It was five in the morning. Most people would be tired. Most people would be in bed. Most people his age would be putting on a suit and following around some old rich guy while they were supposed to be taking notes on what to do in an office. But Troy wasn't most guys.

Here he was, sitting in his office desk. The lights were on and the people that stayed there all night trying to work on their cases were in the back room where their cots were to sleep. The secretaries were somewhere around the office trying to set up whatever it is that they do. The Chief wasn't there yet, as the janitors were seen around the office every once in a while collecting garbage.

Troy stared down at the manila folder in front of him. He knew he only had an hour before he was expected to be down in the training room for their last day before he could actually be put onto another case. It would be a lie if Troy said he wasn't excited to get this over with so he could go back to normal.

Troy knew he had a choice. He was basically alone right now with the folder of Gabriella's life. He didn't know if she read through his, even though it probably didn't matter since he had nothing that interesting in there. The most interesting thing in his folder would probably be all the missions he's been on, but everyone he's talked to has made Gabriella's seem so exciting even though they haven't read it either.

Troy lifted the top flap of the folder and quickly shut it before reading it. If Gabriella found out, how would she react? It depended on what kind of mood she was in and if he ticked her off or not. But Troy had a feeling that they wouldn't get on each other's nerves that often today due to the previous night and the thought Troy couldn't get out of his head…Troy could still remember Gabriella's back to his chest as his hands gripped her wrists, while turning her body with his to show her the movements to smooth out her technique.

Troy shut his eyes as if he wasn't doing what he was about to do. His fingers quickly threw open the manila folder as his eyes snapped open and he stared down at the front page that only contained her name. Troy was about to flip to the next page when he nearly jumped out of his seat at the voice behind him.

"Hey Bolton. What'cha doing?" Gabriella asked as Troy heard her come closer and his hands scrambled together to shut the folder.

Troy cleared his throat nervously as he tried to act cool and put the folder in his second desk drawer. "Um…nothing important." Troy looked at her with a small smile trying to hide his nerves. "Um…what are you doing?"

Gabriella sat on the corner of her desk as she shrugged, "Couldn't sleep."

"So you come to work early?" Troy questioned with amusement coming from his mouth.

"Coming from the guy who was here before me." Gabriella smiled as she crossed her legs.

"I'm here everyday at this time." Troy informed her. "Not that you would know."

"Hey, I have a question." Gabriella said quietly as Troy looked up at her. Wondering what she would have to ask him since she sounded almost nervous. "Um…I know that you have every right, but…did you happen to read my file?" Gabriella's voice got quieter with each word she spoke.

"Um…" Troy looked down at his desk. "No."

Troy looked up and saw that Gabriella hopped off her desk. She had a smile on her face that Troy was getting used to seeing, and she just stood there.

"Want to go train?" Gabriella asked as Troy looked around. He didn't have anything better to do.

"Yeah." Troy said as he followed Gabriella out. What could it hurt training a little extra. Maybe she was different than what he thought.

* * *

"No offense, but I'm kind of glad that these three days are up and we can stop doing training and 'trust' work." Gabriella said as she laid in the middle of the boxing ring as she heard Troy chuckle from the corner of the ropes.

They were the only ones there and finally they were done with Josh and Peyton trying to teach them how to trust each other. Sure they were working a little bit better together. Gabriella knew Troy's strengths and he knew some of hers, but they didn't know each other's weaknesses, and they sure as hell couldn't trust each other yet. Gabriella knew for sure that trust didn't come easy and you sure as hell didn't get it in three days especially since half of that time you were fighting.

"Same here. I can't wait to get an assignment." Troy said as Gabriella could hear his footsteps nearing and then felt the vibrations of Troy sitting down next to her as she turned her head to the side to confirm that he was sitting with his knees bent up and was leaning back on his hands a little in a relaxed way.

"Because that doesn't sound like you're wishing some horrible crime on some poor innocent person." Gabriella teased as she felt her breathing start to slow down and her chest wasn't heaving anymore.

Troy looked down at Gabriella as she had her eyes closed and smiled as he couldn't stop the dirty thought of him hovering over her right now with just her dark blue sports bra separating their chests from touching.

"Have you ever been to France?" Gabriella asked all of a sudden as Troy looked down at her once again.

"Um…no. I don't think I have." Troy answered truthfully not really knowing where Gabriella was going with this. "Why?"

"No reason. Just a good conversation starter." Gabriella said as she sighed and sat up. "Do you want to work on some defense?"

Troy looked at her like she was crazy. They had just gotten done with two hours of defense drills. "Are you serious?" Troy asked as he watched Gabriella stand up.

"Yeah, I want to work on some blocking and I think I would look pretty stupid doing it by myself. Plus you're right here and you don't have anything better to do." Gabriella joked as Troy rolled his eyes.

"You get the gloves." Troy said lazily.

"Oh no, we don't need them. It's not like they work anyways." Gabriella said as she saw Troy thinking it over. "Plus, it's not like we're killing each other."

Troy sighed as he ran a hand through his hair. "Fine Montez, but you're asking for it."

Gabriella smirked, "I never said I wasn't."

Troy shook his head at Gabriella as they shared a smile. "So what, you just want me to throw a punch at you?" Troy asked as Gabriella nodded and stepped closer.

"That's the point." Gabriella said as she nodded again and they both got ready in their stances. "Don't hold back." Gabriella reminded him.

"I couldn't even if I tried Montez." Troy said as Gabriella rolled her eyes.

"Classic Bolton. How did I get so lucky to being paired up with you for a partner?" Gabriella asked sarcastically as just then Troy's fist came flying towards her face and she leaned back and he missed her by a hair.

Gabriella turned her head back to look at Troy who was smirking. "Ready?" Troy said cheekily.

Gabriella nodded. "I'm waiting."

Troy didn't know how Gabriella Montez had managed to get on his good side, but she had. Somewhere in between the three days Troy was pulled out of his brooding state and was getting back to normal. Of course he would never admit Gabriella had something to do with it, but he knew she did and that's all that mattered.

Gabriella couldn't help but notice how flawlessly Troy moved throwing punches at her. Of course she knew that he was holding back because she was pretty sure that if he was actually trying, he would make sure that she couldn't block him. Gabriella ducked Troy as she dropped to the ground swiped her leg out from under herself to trip Troy.

Troy wasn't expecting Gabriella to actually fight back as he fell forward onto Gabriella as she landed with an 'oomph' sound. They both were panting slightly as new sweat developed on their foreheads and Gabriella's back collided with the mat below them.

Gabriella could feel Troy's breath on her lips as one of his hands moved delicately up and touched one side of her face to move a curl behind her ear. She didn't know when or how things got like this between her and Troy, but somewhere along the line she seemed to be thinking differently of him.

Gabriella wanted to deny what was happening. She wanted to just hit the do over button and block out tripping Troy because then they wouldn't be in this situation of Troy and her staring intently at each other. But it wasn't some angry, I'm-gonna-kill-you stare. It was more like an I'm gonna rip your clothes off any minute and make you scream my name kind of stare.

It wasn't that Gabriella didn't want to kiss Troy, but that would just make their relationship more complicated. They were partners, they shouldn't be anything more other than each other's own personal helper.

Gabriella felt Troy's nose rub against her own as her breathing picked up again and his hands found her own and stoked up and down lightly. Gabriella knew this was wrong, she didn't even know if he had a girlfriend!

Troy ran one of his hands up her bare arm, loving the way her skin felt against his hands. He could almost taste her lips as his lingered over her and he was yet to get a reaction out of her, although it wasn't like she was pulling away right now, so she must've wanted this too?

Troy wasn't planning on kissing Gabriella that day. It just was working out like that. It was like it was one of the times that happens without no one being able to stop it, unless the other one freaks like there's no tomorrow.

Gabriella's eyes went wide as she finally came to her senses right before Troy was going to connect their lips. Her hands went to his shoulders as she gained composure and gripped his tightly as she lifted his upper body slightly and slid her way out from underneath him.

She stood up quickly as Troy tried to register what almost happened and then realized he was still on the ground. Gabriella looked around anywhere but Troy as she heard him stand up. Troy scratched the back of his neck as he stared at Gabriella. He would've never had this kind of problem with Chad.

"Um…I have to um…get home for…dinner and…bye." Gabriella stammered as she stepped out of the ring and was quickly retreating back to the locker room.

Troy should've just let it go. It was unusual for a girl to forget that he tried to kiss them, actually Troy never had this problem before since girls were usually throwing themselves at him since he was good looking. But Troy wasn't using his best judgment when he opened his mouth to speak.

"WAIT!" Troy jogged after her as Gabriella didn't stop, but he grabbed at her arm just in time before she walked into the girls locker room. "Please, just wait." Troy said knowing he had to make things right between them before they went on their first mission together.

"We can't do this…you can't do this…I can't do this…I don't even know you!" Gabriella exclaimed out loud to try to at least make sense of this in her mind.

"I know. I know." Troy said quickly. "And I wish that I could take it back." Troy didn't know if that was the right thing to say, but in all fairness he didn't mean that he would like to take it back, he just meant that under these circumstances he would take it back.

Gabriella sighed and Troy didn't know if it was out of relief, or she was mad and trying to cool off. "Good, because this…can't happen again. _**AGAIN**_." Gabriella stressed. "Because we have to be professional…this just can't happen if we're partners…no, it can't happen period. No matter if we're partners or not." Gabriella continued to rant and Troy found that Gabriella was taking this a little too over board. She didn't have to keep reminding him that it shouldn't happen.

"Okay Montez, I get it. It won't happen again." Troy said coolly and stiffly as Gabriella looked him over.

"Good." Gabriella nodded her head as if she was still trying to convince herself that.

"You should probably go…that is if you don't want to be late for dinner." Troy saw the confusion flash through Gabriella's eyes at his cool voice that held warning in his tone.

* * *

Gabriella knew that it was just a kiss. She was there, so she should know that if she did let Troy connect their mouths last night that it wouldn't have gone any further. But what she really wanted to convince herself to know was that she wouldn't have kissed back.

Gabriella walked into the office nervously. Today they had a big meeting with all the other agents that didn't have any cases and the Chief would be handing out assignments. She didn't know why she was so nervous, but something about the tone Troy used with her after the almost kiss kind of freaked her out. It didn't sound like he was ready to burst into yelling at her, but it just sounded like him when she first arrived.

Gabriella looked around the office and noticed there was quiet a few more people in there compared to yesterday. But she figured that was because she got there an hour later compared to the other day. Gabriella looked around again as she neared her desk and sure enough there was Troy looking at the same folder she saw him with again, of course it wasn't open, but he was eying it up.

"Hey Bolton." Gabriella greeted as Troy's eyes snapped up and his hands scampered to put the folder away. Troy didn't bother saying anything back as he just looked up and nodded. "You ready to get an actual assignment today?"

Before Troy could answer the Chief's voice echoed through out the office Gabriella offered Troy a small smile trying to see if he would at least respond to that. She didn't know why he was acting like that. Sure they almost kissed and she told him that they couldn't, but he knew that right? Or was it because she was the one that rejected him and not the other way around? Or maybe because Troy knew that they couldn't do it and he just let his defense down for the first time in a while?

Gabriella followed behind Troy into the room and she saw Chad and Taylor already in there talking very closely together. Gabriella noticed Troy took a seat on the side of Taylor, but two down leaving an empty seat in the middle of the two. Gabriella only figured he did this because Zeke was already sitting by Chad.

"Hey, so how's the partner?" Taylor whispered as she turned away from Chad and looked at Gabriella. Gabriella sighed, she had told Taylor all about her experiences with Troy over the last three days and Taylor was not helping.

"He's different today." Gabriella said back as the Chief was setting up something in the front of the room and at the head of the table.

"You should just kissed him, see where it would've led." Taylor said as Gabriella rolled her eyes. Taylor had been suggesting that all night and Gabriella got the feeling that she was going off of her own personal experience.

Gabriella sighed, "I don't even know if he has a girlfriend. I don't know anything in his personal life Tay." Gabriella reminded her as they were whispering so no one else could hear and the Chief then cleared his throat to make everyone be quiet.

"So today we have three cases that appear to be at a great concern to us." The Chief started and Gabriella didn't want this to happen. She wanted to pay attention, but she found it hard with the guy next to her.

Gabriella turned her head unnoticeable and looked Troy over. Today his hair fell in his eyes as she found that his eyes looked to be a little darker than usual as he was wearing a black suit. She couldn't help but think back to when his hands were all over her yesterday as they were doing a drill with Josh and Peyton.

"So I would like Danforth and McKessie to take this one." The Chief went on and she noticed that Troy's face faltered a bit before looking at Chad and giving him a small smile. Gabriella didn't know if that was because he wanted the case they got, or he was just sad that he wasn't partnered to Chad anymore.

"So let's pack everything up and the rest of you, I want you to split up and divide and conquer." The Chief said as Troy stood up and Gabriella sensed that he was tense and angry. She didn't know that it went by this fast, but she was happy that Tay and Chad got an assignment. "Bolton, Montez!" The Chief called as they snapped their heads towards the Chief who just slapped down two manila folders on the table. "I need you to stay behind."

Troy and Gabriella shared a look as they both sat down again. Everyone cleared out as the Chief slid them over the folders. "We need the best for this mission, so I saved the best for last." The Chief concluded as Gabriella and Troy both glanced down at the folders. "Go ahead, open them. They're the same."

Gabriella opened her cover and saw a picture of a girl no older than 10. She had shoulder length blonde hair, with bright green eyes. Peach skin, wearing a nice summer dress. "That's Molly Miller. She's the--"

"Vice Presidents daughter." Gabriella finished for him.

The Chief nodded. "We had an anonymous tip that Jenson was behind this and he has been gone for a week or two now and he was seen where Molly and her mom was stationed at in New York the weekend she was taken. But the anonymous caller said that he was back in town now." The Chief informed them.

Gabriella's face paled at the mention of Jenson up to his dirty work. How could this be happening again, she remembered when she had just turned 10 and it was one of the three worst times of her life.

"Montez, you okay?" Troy nudged her as she looked up and saw that the Chief was packing up.

Gabriella nodded hesitantly. "Was there anything unusual at the crime scene?" Gabriella asked as she also stood up followed by Troy.

"Wait, have you ever dealt with Jenson before?" Troy asked.

"It's obvious you haven't read her file Bolton." The Chief chuckled at Troy's confused face. "Gabriella…" Troy found it strange that the Chief used her first name. "I know you of all people know his tactics, and technique, that's why I put you and Bolton together on this mission. So you of all people know that when Jenson takes someone, he doesn't leave anything behind, no fingerprints, no footprints, no DNA. You have everything that we found in those folders." The Chief said. "But remember, do not let revenge take over. Now get to work."

Gabriella sighed as she ran her hand through her hair as Troy turned to look at her confused. He couldn't believe that Jenson could possible be behind this. He refused to lose another person's life because of Jenson, so if Gabriella knew something he didn't then he wanted that information too.

Troy opened his mouth to speak, but Gabriella beat him to it. "Don't ask Bolton." All of a sudden Gabriella wasn't feeling very up to talking and making an amends with Troy.

"I think I deserve to know before I jump into combat with you." Troy retorted as he looked at Gabriella with a strict face.

"Just…just read my file and you'll have the information sparing the details." Gabriella said starting to walk away.

"You like to run a lot don't you?" Troy called out as Gabriella turned sharply around. It was now that Gabriella was thankful that they were in a room by themselves.

"Don't tell me what I like to do or don't. You don't know me." Gabriella said as she stepped forward with narrowed eyes and a tight jaw.

Troy copied her moves. "Well you're not proving me wrong."

Gabriella rolled her eyes. She just wanted to find Jenson and get this over with once and for all. "Fine!" Gabriella exclaimed. "You really want to know?!"

"Enlighten me! How bad could the life of the ex-Chief's daughter be?!" Troy shouted as he took a couple of more steps forward again.

Gabriella was blowing out steam. "You probably should learn more about the Chief's because my dad's gone! He died on assignment with my mom and it was for me!" Gabriella yelled and she was pretty sure that this room was sound proof, but if not then everyone outside could hear them.

Troy looked taken aback by this as Gabriella slammed her fist down on the wooden table. "By the age of five I was kid napped by Jack Jenson." Gabriella said dangerously low as she was trying to control her emotions, even though it never worked when it came to this topic. "My mom and her partner worked together and they rescued me after three days. By the age of ten I was captured again, but this time Jack Jenson died, my dad took him out a couple of years before that, but he had a son." Gabriella said trailing off.

"You mean Matt Jenson, the one we're after now?" Troy asked.

Gabriella nodded. "He wanted revenge on my dad, so what better way than to take his daughter just to spite him. Matt does everything out of revenge, it's the way he works. But my mom and dad worked together this time to get me back after two weeks. " Gabriella said. "It was…let's just say that I don't want Molly to have the time to see what I saw." Gabriella explained as she seemed to be calming down a bit. She looked up and for the first time saw how close they were.

"But you're mom and dad are okay, right?" Troy asked with true concern. It was then that Gabriella saw that he really did like his job, that he really had a sincere natural talent of caring for others.

"I was 15, in school. Just starting out high school and we have a lock down. You can only guess who it is. Jenson came into my school and took me. It took my mom and dad three weeks to find him. They had to go through so many people to get to me, they reached a point where they had to separate and follow up on two different leads." Gabriella took a deep breath.

"My mom reached me first, but that wasn't good enough. Jenson got to her and he killed her slowly. He injected this thing into her, and no one else knew the antidote except him. His followers didn't even know it, but it killed her within three hours and I was there to watch her suffer." Gabriella said as she could feel Troy's breath against her face as she looked at his chest, she wouldn't dare look him in the eye.

"My dad came with back up, my mom's and dad's best friends and they got me out of there as my dad stayed back to deal with Jenson. My dad ended up getting shot and died right alongside my mom's body." Gabriella finished. "So don't tell me how good my life is when you know nothing about--"

Gabriella was cut off as Troy's lips came crashing down on hers as his hands went to the back of her head and to her lower back. Gabriella couldn't believe this was happening, but what really surprised her more was that she was kissing back.

Troy's tongue ran across her bottom lip as they were both coming to the need of air. Gabriella felt Troy's hand on the back of her head run down her back. They both pulled away, panting slightly as they stared at each other.

"What the hell was that?" Gabriella asked in a whisper slowly.

"Brie--" Troy started.

"Don't." Gabriella said backing up from Troy while she grabbed one of the folders on the table next to them. "It's Montez, and you were right about one thing." Gabriella was near the door as they never broke eye contact. "I like to run."


	6. Outside the Box

Gabriella had her head resting in her elbows. She had just gotten home from work and it was midnight. She was due back at the office in six hours, and she was wiped out. Troy and her were so tense and she knew that they were being so selfish for letting their personal problems affect their work for Molly and Gabriella would not let what happened to her happen to Molly. They were going to get Molly back before she was forced to see death itself.

Gabriella opened the manila folder reading for what seemed like the tenth time that day to see if she missed anything. She knew that when she went into work that she would have to talk to Troy, even though she was feeling a little something for him, she still couldn't take the risk of being with him. What if someone found out and they could use that against them.

Gabriella felt her eyes fluttering closed and open as her buzzer went off and she nearly fell out of her seat. Who would be at her door at this time, unless…Gabriella's face paled as she thought of Jenson. It had been nearly ten years since she had seen him and from what she could tell, he probably would still be pissed off.

Gabriella walked slowly to her door and the sound where the buzzer was coming from. But he wouldn't be there, he didn't know where she was, did he? And he certainly wouldn't be ringing the doorbell outside waiting for her to buzz him in.

Gabriella held down the gray button and spoke groggily into the speaker. "Who is it?" Gabriella was too tired to be polite and greet the person who was at her doorstep at midnight nonetheless.

"Bolton." Gabriella heard the voice say and she sighed.

"Come in. I'm up the stairs, room seven." Gabriella instructed as she held down the red button to unlock it downstairs. Why would Troy be over at her house if she just left work an hour ago? Unless he found something. All of a sudden Gabriella wasn't as tired as she thought she was. What if they found out more information? What if they had information that showed evidence that Jenson was indeed the person they're after even though from what they had he was their only suspect.

Gabriella heard a knock on her apartment door as she unlocked the two locks and opened the door to Troy who was still dressed in the same things that he was wearing earlier that day.

Gabriella just stared with confusion as she ran her hand through her hair. "What are you doing here this late…I mean early in the morning?" Gabriella asked as she tried to hide her yawn.

"Can I come in?" Troy asked in a serious voice that Gabriella never liked to hear and she had only known him for barely three days.

It wasn't like Gabriella could just send him away. So she moved off to the side a little and motioned with her hands that he could come in. She eyed him up again as his back was to her and he took in her apartment.

It was a wide open apartment, as her living room had huge windows in it looking out into the city, white walls, red furniture, wooden floors, not kid friendly as there was a hallway next to the living room which Troy could only assume led to the bathroom and bedroom, and then the kitchen was attached to the living room on the other side.

Gabriella shut her front door and locked the bottom lock as Troy turned around. "So what's up that couldn't wait six hours?" Gabriella asked.

"Well considering we have a really tight schedule right now and a missing girl that is probably with one of the sickest guys, is that good enough reason to stop by?" Troy asked as Gabriella seemed to get the point.

Gabriella sighed, "I've been looking through the files, but I can't find anything that we haven't read before." Gabriella said in a tired voice as she motioned over to the desk that was in the corner of the living room with a lamp by it turned on. Gabriella walked into her living room and sat down on the couch as she looked at Troy who made his way to the recliner.

"Well I gave up on those files a couple of hours ago. I've actually looked into some of his old cases and the ones where the CIA was actually successful in getting the kids back…" Troy said as he took out a folder from the inside of his jacket that seemed to come out of no where. "Ring a bell?" Troy asked as Gabriella eyed it carefully.

Then it dawned on her. What Troy said and how he was only looking at the kids that got away safely…well for one thing, it wasn't kids, it was kid. Only one kid and he was looking at her. Gabriella nodded her head slightly. "And?" Gabriella asked weakly.

"And I'm speaking to her…I was thinking that maybe if we went over what Jenson did with you, then maybe we could relate it back to Molly because from what it says in your files you were from LA, right?" Troy asked and Gabriella shut her eyes and nodded.

"Yeah, this is my hometown." Gabriella said. "But I really don't think me telling you--"

"Montez, we need to think outside the box, and right now this is all we got. So start talking." Troy instructed as Gabriella sighed.

"Just listen to me for once." Gabriella snapped as Troy's eyes seemed more alert. "Here's outside the box for you. Jenson does things for revenge. We need to figure out what or how Vice President Miller ticked him off because Jenson doesn't go off the books for kids that are useless to him, he does it to spite people and either get their money or their lives." Gabriella explained.

"Is that--is that what happened to you?" Troy asked after a while of silence.

Gabriella just stared at the ground. "Yeah, at first my mom was on the family Jenson case and that ticked them off, and then as soon as they found out my mom had a family, bam. They had a way to get revenge. They had a motive, so…I say was talk to the Vice President, but first we--"

"Yeah, yeah. We have to find at least one good piece of evidence that Jenson is the guy or else it'd be like digging in a hay stack for a needle that wasn't even there in the first place." Troy said as Gabriella looked at him weirdly. "What?"

Gabriella smiled her first real smile that day, "Nothing it's just…an analogy?"

Troy matched her small smile. "How else am I gonna get you to understand." Troy joked as Gabriella rolled her eyes and got up and started walking out of the room. "Where are you going?" Troy asked.

Gabriella looked at him with a 'duh' look. "To go change. And then we're gonna get coffee and get some answers." Gabriella said as she disappeared down the hallway.

Troy just watched Gabriella go get ready. It seemed like she knew what she was doing. Troy had to admit, working with her he was at first hesitant that morning, especially since he had to be his cocky self that morning thinking that Gabriella would actually like kissing him.

Sure, she did kiss back, but he knew better than to do that, but all he could remember was Gabriella's mouth moving, her breath close to his, her eyes twinkling, her lips forming words, Troy felt like he couldn't get enough of her. And although half the time Gabriella was his partner he was a jerk towards her, that didn't mean he still didn't have masked feelings for her, he was a guy after all and Gabriella was a beautiful, hot, sexy, smart new girl in the office that anyone would want to work with, including him sometimes.

"Ready Bolton?" Gabriella asked as she walked out wearing dark blue jeans with a black short sleeves blouse that showed off enough cleavage, but not too much. "Do you need to stop home to change or…?" Gabriella trailed off.

"No, I got stuff in the car." Troy said as he stood up. "So where to first?"

"First I thought we get a coffee at Starbucks, while we make a list of who we can question for information on Jenson and his plans." Gabriella explained as she grabbed the folder off of her desk and started heading out of her apartment with Troy.

"But almost all of the people that know of Jenson are bad guys themselves. You practically need an inn with them to get information or threaten them with their lives." Troy said as Gabriella shut the door behind him and they made their way downstairs.

Gabriella knew Troy was right. The people that would know of Jenson's plans would be the people on the street right now, and luckily Gabriella spent most of her free college time working on getting on their good sides to make ally's or not so much ally's but people she could have an inn with herself for information, that is, if the price was right.

Gabriella smirked as she got into the passenger seat of the black SUV. "Exactly." Gabriella finally agreed with Troy as he gave her a skeptical look, but started the car nonetheless.

* * *

"Turn right…" Gabriella instructed from her spot as Troy continued to drive into the other side of the city. The roads were all cracked, with huge potholes, the houses had broken window, boxed in screen doors, and some houses had no doors. The street lights flickered on and off, but most of the time they were off. Every once in a while you would hear a gun fire go off or it was a car backfiring, and Troy wished for the second one.

Troy would've been lying if he said he wasn't nervous, but Gabriella seemed used to this. "So um…you haven't been here in LA for how long?" Troy asked trying to make sense of where to go to find some of Jenson's friends.

"Since my college days, but only for a year, then I transferred schools to New York." Gabriella explained. "Turn left up here and stop across the street from the Laundry place." Gabriella continued.

"Um…so what are we doing here?" Troy asked as he pulled up under a tree and across the lit up laundry mat.

Gabriella unbuckled her seat belt as it was still completely dark out since it was only 1 in the morning. "This is Chirs William's hang out." Gabriella said as she leaned over onto Troy's half of the car to get a better look at the Laundry mat.

Gabriella shoulder rubbed up against Troy's chest before she knew what she was doing. She pulled back and sat in her own seat. "So I'm just gonna go in there--"

"We're gonna go in there." Troy corrected her.

"No." Gabriella stressed. "I'm just gonna go in there since they know me. They don't know that I'm in the CIA. They think I'm some stupid, low life, girl that passes them money or cigarettes for information. They don't ask who I work for as long as I give them what they want." Gabriella informed Troy.

"No, I don't want you going in there alone." Troy said forcefully.

"I've done it before and believe me, it's just gonna be worst if you come with. That's like their number one rule, don't bring outsiders. You want to know what happened to the guy that brought me all those years back?" Gabriella asked even though they both knew that she was gonna tell him no matter what.

"No, but you're still gonna lecture me." Troy muttered as he turned off the car.

Gabriella sighed, "Yeah…he was found dead the next day." Gabriella said with a lowness to her voice. "Listen, what do you think is gonna happen?"

Troy sighed as he ran his hand through his hair, "I think…I think…that maybe there's gonna be about ten guys--"

"Seven." Gabriella corrected him quietly.

"Okay, I think there's gonna be seven guys down there, all with guns, and knives, just ready for some innocent girl to walk in there to kill." Troy said in a know-it-all tone.

Gabriella unbuckled her seat as she turned her body to look in the back of Troy's car. "Well…" Gabriella said in a strained voice as her hand seemed to be reaching around in the back for something. "You're just gonna have to trust--" Gabriella stopped abruptly when she heard Troy clear his throat. "You're just gonna have to **_believe_** in me and take a chance."

Gabriella sat up straight as she brought her hand back into view only to have Troy looking down at his dark blue old navy zip up jacket that could either be worn for a light weight jacket for fall or just around the house in the winter.

"But I just…" Troy trailed off as Gabriella slipped her top off as Troy found that his breathing seemed to get stuck in his throat. She was wearing a black lace bra, but it was soon covered as she put Troy's jacket around her that was two or three sizes too big. She then ran her hand through her hair messily to make it look like she just got out of bed and if Troy didn't know any better, she'd fit right in as she stuffed her hands in his jackets pockets.

"I'm going in, you should probably keep the car running just in case we need to make a fast get away." Gabriella said as she stepped outside of the car.

"No, I'm coming with." Troy said stubbornly as he too got out of the car. "And what was that with the changing of the clothes and hair. You look like a…"

"Like a person who can't afford to wear clothes that fit them, or is borrowing her boyfriends clothes?" Gabriella offered as a word choice. "Good, because that's what I'm going for."

"And they can't see your shirt because?"

"Because they're gonna search me for weapons, and of course I won't have one because it's in the car right now, but they can't see my shirt either because it's labeled and they think I don't have that kind of money. Now, just wait here or else we **_both could die_**." Gabriella stressed the last sentence. She really was looking out for him. She wasn't trying to make him feel useless, but in all fairness he wanted to look outside the box for information, and she thought of this.

These guys were her resources, and she worked for a year trying to gain their trust, and she knew that this gang took new people vary seriously and if Troy came in they wouldn't like it.

"Montez, you are not going in there by yourself. And if you tell me to stay out here, I'll just wait until you go in and then I'll follow you." Troy said as Gabriella sighed.

They really didn't have time for them to be fighting either so Gabriella gave in quickly half forgetting that the consequences she would have to serve later.

"Lose the suit jacket. Unbutton at least the top three buttons of your shirt, and run a hand through your hair. That's all I can think of, do you have any jeans in your car?" Gabriella asked.

Troy shook his head no. "Nope, guess this is gonna have to do." Troy smirked.

"Fine." Gabriella said quietly as they slowly crossed the eerie street. "Now, they don't know we're from the CIA remember." Gabriella reminded him as they stopped outside the clear see through door. "We're just gonna have to pull this off somehow. They hate outsiders, so…you're gonna have to be my boyfriend, but whatever they want to trade information with, so be it. Usually it's cigarettes, cigars, or money, it all depends on the information they give us." Gabriella said.

"Okay." Troy nodded. "But boyfriend and girlfriend?" Troy asked with a smirk.

Gabriella rolled her eyes. "Let me do the talking and if you're not spoken to, then don't talk. Trust me, I learned that the hard way." Gabriella muttered the last part as she pushed open the doors.

They entered the laundry mat and saw about twenty washers, as the used to be white walls were slowly cracking and turning a light yellow as the lights above them flickered every so often as you couldn't hear anything. Gabriella and Troy looked around and Troy noticed Gabriella was leading him over to an archway that either led to the right of left.

Gabriella stopped short of the archway that lead to the back and looked at Troy. "Now remember, you don't talk, you don't work for the CIA, and you're not Mr. Tough Guy." Gabriella reminded him as Troy rolled his eyes.

"Yes mom." Troy mocked as Gabriella glared at him finding it really hard to believe that Troy could pull this off, but he was her partner so she was willing to take a risk with him right now, she only hoped that he would do that for her, but instead he insisted that he come along.

"Let's go." Gabriella said lowly as she walked through the dark archway and turned left. They walked another twenty feet down the dark hallway that had no light, the wall paper was stripping off, and the air smelled like smoke.

Gabriella and Troy were soon approaching a guy that was husky looking, he had several tattoos on his arm, his dark brown medium length hair was pulled back in a low pony tail, as he was just wearing blue jeans and a white beater.

Gabriella stopped shortly in front of him as the guy let out a small grunt. Gabriella smirked at him as she put on this whole other person act. "Hey Sid, what's a girl to do to get in to talk to Chris?" Gabriella asked seductively as Troy saw a small smirk playing on Sid's face.

"And she's back ladies and gentlemen." Sid said as he pulled Gabriella closer to him by the waist as he slung his other arm over her shoulder to have his hand play with her hair. "How you've been V?" Sid asked gruffly as Troy found himself growing this anger that this creep had his hands all over Gabriella, but all Gabriella was doing was smiling innocently and playing along with Sid.

"Not bad, could be better if you would let us through." Gabriella hinted towards the door while biting her bottom lip seductively as Sid ripped his eyes from Gabriella who now had one of her legs wrapped around him and Troy felt Sid looking him over.

Sid let out a harsh chuckle. "You know Chris won't be happy. What fucked up mess did you get yourself into this time that you need this bastard?"

"You under estimate me baby." Gabriella said into Sid's ear. "We just want to see Chris and we'll be out of your hair."

Sid glared at Troy. "And the pretty boy?"

Gabriella looked over her shoulder at Troy and kinked her eye brow with a shrug to play it off cool. "He's with me. Now what do you say, do you think you can let us through?"

There was a silence. "You still living around here?" Sid asked out of the blue as Gabriella smiled.

"Back for good." Gabriella twirled on of her curls on her fingers and Troy instantly knew that she was used to this. This wasn't really her, but she was a good actress. "You let me through and I might just be seeing you more often." Gabriella whispered in his ear as Troy had to strain his hearing to just make out what she said.

Gabriella was disgusted with herself, but she had learned back in college when she was getting information from bad guys that this is what they fell for. Sure, she knew that she would never do half the things she suggested with them, but they never knew that. She also knew she would never sleep with them, but if push came to shove she would have to make out with them. After all, when she first met Sid, that's what she had to do so that she could get to Chris, and she absolutely felt disgusted with herself, resulting in a two hour shower.

Sid shook his head, "Chris isn't going to like this, but here you go kid." Chris opened the door leading down into a black basement with smoke rising and music playing with some guy's voices muffled.

"Thanks." Gabriella said into Sid's ear as she grabbed Troy's hand and started pulling him down the stairs before Sid changed his mind.

* * *

**Author's Note--What do you guys think so far with this chapter or just the whole story in general? I would call this chapter more of a filler, but i would still appreciate some feedback. Thanks--**


	7. Location

It was dark, almost like movie theatre dark when the movie wasn't playing and they had just turned off the lights. The air reeked of alcohol and…smoke? There was about twenty four stairs to go down before they reached the room with the cold, damp cement walls, the cob webs in the corners, and the six guys sitting around on couches and chairs smoking while looking amusingly at their guns on the table.

Gabriella looked briefly at Troy as they stood at the bottom of the steps looking at the guys who haven't looked up and around at them since they had their backs turned to the two.

Gabriella saw the worry and nervousness in Troy's eyes, but in one quick blink of an eye Troy managed to change his whole demeanor. His feet went from shifting his weight from one foot to the other to a study stance like a statue. His arm hairs managed to peak over as they were no longer standing up like a cats hair when they get scared. His jaw wasn't slightly ajar as it was now tightly set as his breathing could no longer be heard through his flared nostrils. And his eyes…weren't the calming blue that seemed to sparkle when he was thinking or laid back in a relaxed manner. No, they were glazed over with a cloud of sharpness.

"It's gonna be fine." Gabriella whispered even though it was more for her benefit than Troy's since he looked like he was more put together than she was. Gabriella felt her heartbeat speed up as she saw the back of the head of the person they were there for. The ring leader. The conductor. The playmaker. The guy who had answers. It was now just a matter of how they would get the answers they were seeking.

Gabriella felt Troy's pinky finger graze her little hand compared to the overly sized blue hoodie hanging off of her body in her tight blue jeans that would've showed off her curves if it wasn't for the hoodie that nearly reached three fourths of her thighs. Gabriella looked down at his hand and then up into his tan face. Her eyes were just adjusting as they had only been down there for a little less than ten seconds and she still could make out the little hairs on Troy's face from not shaving yet.

"You said we're together." Troy whispered as his hand grabbed onto hers and Gabriella didn't know if she should be feeling the sparks run through her arm and through her body. After all they did kiss, and she let down her guard and kissed back, but…now? At all times she was soon coming to terms that she might actually like Bolton…Troy Bolton?

Gabriella nodded silently as she was becoming more nervous. Why was she all of a sudden nervous now when she had done this before by herself? Gabriella felt her legs start walking with Troy a step behind her and their hands still linked.

"DAMN IT!" A guy exclaimed as he threw done a set of cards and stood up abruptly while muttering something.

Gabriella and Troy shared a look as the guy got up and slammed himself down on an empty beat up looking couch that you would see in a junkyard, with it's used to be burgundy cushions now tearing and ripping at the seams, the arms of the couch falling in and limp, while one of the legs of the couch must have been broken since it wobbled slightly as he sat down.

"Look what the cat dragged in." Chris's voice could be heard as he still had his back turned towards Gabriella and Troy.

Gabriella's grip instantly tightened on Troy's hand and she was pretty sure that she was flooding Troy's hand with her sweaty, nervous hand. Gabriella and Troy froze in their spots as the five guys that weren't Chris shot their eyes up from the table or the floor and looked at them with a creepy crooked smirk on their faces.

It seemed one by one each and every one of them stood up and narrowed their eyes slowly. As if trying to intimidate them as they reached for their guns or knives, or even both in some cases. All the while Chris just stayed with his back to them.

"Now boys, let's wait to see who it is." Chris's voice dripped with the tone that you use to seem pleasant even though everyone could see right past it and discover that you're actually a real bastard or bitch.

Some of the guys lowered their knives but the guns were still pointed directly at them. Gabriella swallowed a dry patch in her mouth as her lips increasingly got dry. "I thought you had an in?" Troy asked out of the side of his mouth at what he thought was a mere whisper.

"Now…now…now…" Chris said in a 'tsk, tsk, tsk' tone. He stood up in saggy blue jeans with a chain at the side, and his famous gray beater. He kept his back to them and Gabriella could just imagine his sinister smirk, the twinkle in his eyes that he got just talking about death, the silver tooth in the bottom left of his mouth from where Gabriella knew his dad punched him. "I don't know who you think you are, but…" Gabriella saw the shine that past through Troy's eyes as she quickly looked to where Troy was staring at and saw Chris's special knife that resembled a chefs knife graze over Chris's palm as he played with it in his hands. "We don't keep secrets."

Gabriella knew this was her turn to step in. It had been quite a while since she was here, but she knew Chris had a temper and she wasn't about to test it. "Chris." Gabriella called out in more of a demand than question to speak.

Chris turned on his heel and for the first time Gabriella saw more than one silver tooth in his crooked smirk that still sent nervous shivers up and down her spine. His crooked smirk turned into a smile that was just as bad as he raised both of his eye brows. "Now there's only one girl that I allow to call me by my name."

Gabriella nodded her head as she didn't dare look away from Chris as there were still five guns pointed at them.

"And that girl disappeared a long time ago." Chris continued and Gabriella didn't dare correct him on how many years exactly. She knew that Chris never liked to be outsmarted and she wasn't about to do that. It would be like entering the lion's den without a weapon.

"You want to tell me the number one thing in life?" Chris asked as Gabriella felt his eyes boring into her body as he looked her up and down. And no matter that she was wearing a hoodie that was three sizes too big, he could get turned on by anything.

Gabriella felt Troy shift his weight from one foot to the other as their now both sweaty hands stayed clasped together as if their lives depended on it. And even though to some people this situation didn't seem so bad seeing as there could be worst ones, it still was kind of scary no matter who you were to have five guns pointed and ready to shoot at you and you having nothing to defend yourself with except your partner. And that was just not an option. The only thing that was comforting Gabriella was the little voice in her head telling her that Troy was smart enough to bring in his gun, but he didn't have his suit jacket on…

Gabriella narrowed her eyes. He did the same thing with everyone who stopped by. Gabriella should know, she once had a spot on his couch as guys would come down here and answer the same question every time and if they got it wrong then it was simple…they wouldn't wake up the next day.

"You're gonna have to do better than that." Gabriella said as her confidence was somewhat building. "It's power."

Chris let out a little laugh as he turned his head to look at his five goons and then settled his eyes on Gabriella and Troy again. "And V is back gentlemen." Chris announced as he flicked his hand and they all sat down again except him. "But the question is…why?"

Gabriella smirked, it was time to put on the act she created her first year of college. "I came back and I just had to see my favorite person." Gabriella hesitantly took a step closer causing Troy to move with her.

Chris narrowed his eyes. "And _**him**_? I do believe I have strict rules on this." Gabriella could hear the venom in his voice and it was now that she was wishing that Troy would've just stayed in the car. But it was too late now and she would have to come up with something.

"Play nice." Gabriella said in her own warning voice as she reluctantly let go of Troy's hand and stood in front of him, moving a little closer to Chris. "It's been a long time, things change."

Gabriella heard Chris click his tongue as his dark eyes turned even more darker. Gabriella saw him flex his hand in a fist pose and the veins bulge out in his arms.

"What mess did you get yourself in?" Chris asked with a slight tint of annoyance in his voice as Gabriella smiled up at Troy indicating that they were in.

"Just need information." Gabriella said. "Plus…you are my guy." Gabriella knew exactly how to sweeten him up as Chris smirked and stepped aside from his spot. He put his arms out and motioned for them to take a seat that no one else was on. Gabriella nodded her head as her eyes connected one last time with Troy's before they stepped all the way into the pit of defenselessness.

* * *

Troy was quiet throughout this whole thing. He had followed all the rules Gabriella told him. He had found it hard, but bit his tongue seeing that Gabriella seemed to know what she was doing. Of course it killed him that he wasn't in control when he was used to doing things his way, but he just had to trust…no, he had to **believe **Gabriella was doing the right thing. It was still too early for him to trust her, even though she seemed pretty trustworthy, but Troy had seen it all. He had seen multiple of people that looked and seemed trustworthy only to have them end up in jail for kidnapping, killing, and terrorism.

Every guy was smoking a cigar or cigarette except Chris as they sat opposite of him with just a low coffee table in between them which held some gun parts, bullets, knives, playing cards, and drinks. Troy was pretty sure that his lungs were probably black now as his eyes kept burning from the smoke and he wondered how Gabriella was doing this.

She was putting on such a brave show that it made him admire her more. And he kind of liked the way she looked in his clothes. Which made him think back to the kiss they shared that morning…well yesterday since it was more like 1:30 a.m.

"You said something about information." Chris more like stated than questioned s he leaned forward in his seat and his shirt came up a little to show off the gun in his pocket which Troy found to be a stupid spot.

"About Jenson…" Gabriella trailed off as Troy listened intently. He wasn't about to open his big mouth--unless necessary--and ruin this conversation so they were back to square one.

"You know the price." Chris pointed out slyly while running his palms together slowly and eyeing Gabriella and Troy up again.

"It depends on what you have for me…um…us." Gabriella corrected as Troy again felt Gabriella tighten her grip on his hand. He didn't know what it was about her, but something from the first time he saw her to now changed. At first he found her to be annoying and just too perfect, but maybe that was his own insecurities talking about losing that one girl a couple of weeks ago compared to Gabriella's clean streak. And then halfway through training he was seeing something different. It was something he saw in himself…determination.

And something about that determination really attracted himself to her. Troy snapped his head back into the conversation going on in front of him, not wanting to miss something. "That's a person I haven't talked about in a while now." Chris leaned back lazily as if this was some big joke and Troy found his blood starting to heat up at how laid back he seemed to be taking this.

Gabriella crossed her legs as she kinked an eye brow at Chris. "Then I guess today's my lucky day."

Chris let out a husky laugh. "Honey, everyday's your lucky day when you talk to Chris."

Troy had to fight every urge in his body once Chris started acting like his cocky bastard self and referred to himself as the third person.

"Do you know anything about Jenson?" Gabriella asked as if Chris hadn't said anything in the first place.

"Do I know anything about Jenson?" Chris laughed again mocking the question as Gabriella shut her eyes and sighed. "This is my town. Maybe you've forgotten after disappearing off the map, but I know **_everything_** that happens here." Chris boasted.

Troy couldn't help himself as he let out a quiet, small grunt and a roll of the eyes. He felt Gabriella stiffen next to him as she registered what Troy just did and they both saw Chris's offended face slowly turning red as his dark eyes turned pitch black to look hollow.

"Do you have a problem _**boy**_?!" Chris demanded.

_Take it back, take it back,_ Troy said over and over in his head. "I just meant…" What did he mean? Well firstly, Jenson is a lot higher up on the power level compared to this guy, but Troy wasn't about to say that so it wouldn't make since if Jenson went through him to get what he wanted. Troy was guessing Jenson could take these guys out in less than a minute flat. "uh…his other cases." Troy said as Gabriella let go of his hand fully now.

"What?" Chris spat out with a dark, deep, voice that would scare any one as his followers got their guns ready again.

Troy sighed, "I just meant…"

"He meant what about Jenson's cases? You know Chris, you're good at remembering them. So what did Jenson do differently with this case than let's say…the Montez case?" Gabriella poked around as Troy looked down at her trying to meet her gaze, but Gabriella wasn't granting him access to her eyes as she kept them on Chris's. But Troy had to hand it to her, she managed to distract Chris away from him while sweet talking him and asking important questions.

Chris sighed as he ran his hand through his hair and eyed Troy again suspiciously before glaring at Gabriella and letting out a huff. "He didn't leave a note." Chris finally said as if debating with himself

"A note?" Gabriella repeated again as a question more to herself but Troy was guessing she said it too loud.

"Listen, I'm not gonna give you information if you're just gonna repeat it." Chris said in an annoyed tone.

"No, I didn't…just…" Gabriella sighed. "So what does that mean?" Gabriella finally just gave up with defending herself on that one and got right back to the questions. Troy felt his hand go to her knee and give it a light squeeze in a reassuring way.

Troy felt Chris's eyes on his hand as he slowly pulled it back from Gabriella and Chris continued, "It means maybe he doesn't want the girl in the first place. He wants something bigger." Chris ran his hand through his hair again. "I don't know what, but he has taken over various properties around town, I only know of one."

Troy felt his forehead crease in confusion. "Which property?" He heard himself ask as he instantly regretted it again as he felt Gabriella wince next to him as Chris slammed his fist down on the coffee table and jumped up with anger. Obviously this guy had some serious anger problems.

Gabriella stood straight up too as she gripped Troy's arm and started pulling him up until Troy got the idea after a second that she wanted him to stand too. The guns were pointed at them again as Chris was breathing heavily and for the first time Troy noticed Gabriella was still clutching onto his arm.

"Did you not tell him the rules?!" Chris shouted at Gabriella as he extended a finger while pointing it at Troy.

"We're sorry…I'm sorry Chris, just let me get him out of here and there will be no more questions." Gabriella pleaded as Chris gave her no response but Troy felt Gabriella jabbing him in the back with one of her hands telling him to walk around the coffee table and to the doors again. "Thanks." Gabriella mumbled quietly as she tried her best to get Troy out of there as soon as possible.

Right when Troy thought their problems were done with as they reached the stairs, Chris's booming voice echoed through their ears. "V! We have some business that needs to be taken care of."

"Come on." Troy whispered in an urging voice, taking Gabriella's forearm in his hand and trying to get her to move up the stairs. He was not going to let her stay by herself with this guy, much less the other guys too.

"Bolton…" It was then that Troy realized she was only acting when she was holding his hand, when she covered for him and his big mouth, when she ushered him out of there. It was all an act and it all registered in his mind as he heard his last name come from her mouth. "I can't just leave like this. What if we need information in the future?" Gabriella countered as quietly as she could.

"V! I swear to God, my boys have been itching to shoot someone and if that someone is you then so be it!" Chris hissed from his spot.

Troy looked from Chris to Gabriella. He didn't know if he would regret this sooner or later, but he would regret this. "I'll be in the car." Troy breathed out. "Don't." He said sharply, "Be long."

He walked up the stairs and tried hearing what was going on but he soon realized this was just something he was going to have to let Gabriella do. After all this was her idea and how to get information, he was just hoping that she will be able to get information about the place Jenson is using as one of his many work spaces.

Troy walked past Sid, not looking back to see the glare he was being sent as he quickly reached the flickering lights of the laundry mat and rushed out of there and to his car where he knew his gun was and various other weapons.

Troy slammed his door shut and turned on the car seeing that it was 2 in the morning now. He would give Gabriella ten minutes before going back in there with his gun. Ten minutes should be enough for getting a tad bit more information, that is if his big mouth didn't ruin anything.

Troy sighed, hoping Gabriella got a location because Jenson worked in various places. He wasn't like a typical crazy mad man who liked power. He would work in mansions, that had various rooms and security, he would work in ware houses, which also held traps and faulty wiring, and sometimes he would just take the thing he was after, leave a note and skip town, but Troy had a feeling Jenson would be sticking around with this one. Why would he take the Vice President's daughter and bring her to LA without a reason?

Troy heard a door closing as he whipped his head around to look out his car door to see a dark hooded figure walking over to the car. It wasn't until he saw one of Gabriella's curls blowing out from the hood on the side of her face that he realized it was indeed Gabriella. Gabriella was walking with her arms crossed across her chest, with her head down, and the hoodie covering her head.

She walked around the back of the car as Troy leaned over and opened the door for her as he saw that the time was 2:13. Gabriella got into the car silently as she kept the hood up and Troy figured she wasn't going to give him his article of clothing back anytime soon.

They sat there in silence as Troy waited to see if Gabriella was going to tell him what was up. "Um…" Troy started as more of a question to start the conversation.

Gabriella looked out the window. "I got a location." Gabriella said and Troy could tell that her eyes were narrow as she turned to look straight out the windshield again.

Troy felt himself smiling, "That's great. Are you okay?"

Gabriella missed a beat as she still looked away from Troy. "Yeah, we got a location, couldn't be better." Her tone totally contradicted what she just said.

"Look at me." Troy demanded softly as he leaned in his seat to get a better view, but Gabriella leaned closer to her window.

"Just drive to headquarters and we'll suit up." Gabriella instructed in a quiet tone.

Troy wanted to know what was wrong. He thought he deserved to know sine he was her partner. "Look at me Montez." Troy said a little stronger as his hand gripped her arm. Still there was no response as Gabriella's stubborn side was coming out. "Look at me Brie." Troy said in a barely audible voice as his new nickname just poured out of his mouth on accident. He hadn't even been thinking of a nickname for her finding that usually they were extremely cheesy, but this one seemed different. He liked the sound of it in his voice.

If his demands didn't get Gabriella to look at him, it was the nickname as she turned slowly in her seat and looked at Troy. He still couldn't see her whole face as her hair and the hoodie that was once again three sizes too big covered it, casting a dark shadow on one side of her face…wait, only one side?

Troy tentatively reached up with both arms and pulled the hoodie off and Gabriella shut her eyes as if he wasn't staring at the cut and hand size bruise on the left side of her face.

"It's not that bad." Gabriella said softly.

"What happened?" Troy asked as his hand hesitantly and carefully reached up and Gabriella flinched a little as Troy's hand traced the outside of the dark bluish and purplish bruise that probably could be covered with make up, but it's not like Troy would know.

Gabriella sighed as she opened her eyes and pulled away from Troy as if nothing happened and she wasn't just letting him touch her face. She reached over her side to buckle herself in. "Next time…" Gabriella said in a sturdy voice compared to the quiet one she was using a minute before this and Troy knew that she was putting on a strong act. "When I tell you to stay in the car, just stay in the car."

Troy's eyes went wide as Gabriella sat stiffly in the seat. He didn't know what to say. Was this really his fault for insisting that he go along with her? But he did it for a good reason, but maybe…if he just gave Gabriella a chance to show him that she was just as capable as he was then that wouldn't of happened.

"Um…so location?" Troy asked changing the subject for now, if only they knew that they weren't the only two going to that destination.


	8. Jenson

"But I don't get it." Troy said again as they both walked swiftly towards the elevator to get out of the underground parking. By now Gabriella was wearing her own shirt again and her hair was in a high pony tail. "How could Jenson buy a mansion right out from under the cities nose?"

Gabriella sighed as she pressed the up button, "Look, I only got the location for the warehouse he is holding his weapons in, and I'm only guessing that he has a different more suited location for himself and Molly."

The elevator opened as they stepped inside. Troy nodded as he couldn't help but stare at the darkening bruise on her skin. Now in brighter lights it looked a lot more noticeable than before in the dark car. Gabriella must have sensed him looking at her as she turned her head and her face contorted into confusion, "You still don't get it?" She sounded exasperated probably from lack of sleep.

It took Troy a couple of seconds before he realized what she meant and shook his head no, "No, it's just…" He trailed off. He didn't want to offend her and have her get angry at him where she refused to talk to him just like in the car.

Troy saw Gabriella sigh again as something in her eyes change and a new softness was there. But he couldn't help but look at the bruise on her cheek. Maybe if he had just believed a little bit more in her and have had faith that she could get a location without him then it wouldn't have happened.

"No Bolton…what is it?" Gabriella asked in a soft voice as her tired eyes bored into his own.

Troy ran his hand through is hair as guilt planted itself into his stomach. "We should probably get some ice put on your cheek. The bruise looks pretty bad, there's probably some internal damage too." Troy said as he looked down at the ground not sure how she would react to his opinion.

The elevator was halfway there seeing as they had to get to the very top of the thirty story building. Never in his entire life had Troy been so considerate and put this much thought into how another person would react to him saying something, and it scared him a little that this new feeling towards Gabriella was spreading.

In the car ride to headquarters Troy couldn't stop overanalyzing his feelings for Gabriella and what attracted him to her. He liked that she had determination, he liked that she was smart, she was witty, cunning, sly, all while being cute and sarcastic, and she was hot. The only reason why he was a jackass to her when she first came was he was just not in the mood seeing as he was still concentrating on his past assignment and the little girl's body they found.

The elevator opened and they walked past the glass doors and to the big open office that held everyone desks. Troy looked up and saw that Chad was on his computer typing quickly which meant Taylor was around here somewhere along with Jason and Zeke who looked to be in a very serious conversation.

Troy turned his head to the side quickly as he heard Gabriella let out a staggered sigh that sounded like she was in pain as he saw her withdraw her right hand from her cheek. "Maybe I should get ice on this. But only until we leave." Gabriella said as Troy nodded.

"We need an ice pack." Troy turned to one of the secretaries that was going through some file. She looked up and her eyes drifted over to Gabriella and then back on Troy and nodded. "Thanks Cindy." Troy said as she got up and rushed to the back where there was a freezer with cold ice packs in it.

Before Troy could say anything to Gabriella he heard Taylor beat him to it, "Oh my God Gabi, what the hell happened?" Taylor asked right away and he saw Gabriella force a smile on her face with her lips tightly together.

"I just…we just…it's nothing." Gabriella said deciding against telling Taylor that this happened from Chris. Taylor had met him once before when they had a case in LA two years before and she never really approved of getting information like that much because of Chris, but she did admit that he did help a little.

Troy felt a tap on his shoulder as he turned around and Cindy was behind her desk again with an ice pack. Troy nodded at her as he quickly walked over to Gabriella with it in hand. "Here you go." Troy said as Gabriella smiled at him and held the towel clad pack to her cheek.

"So I was thinking we just suit up right now and jump right in. Jenson won't be expecting us so this is a perfect time." Gabriella said as Taylor gave her arm a squeeze and she silently left realizing that Gabriella was busy with her partner and their case.

Troy always liked the action part of their job and he definitely wouldn't mind taking out some of Jenson's men along with Jenson himself. Troy looked hesitant however, "How do we know that he's even at the warehouse?" Troy asked as they both started walking out of the office lobby and towards the elevator to head to the floor where more guns and weapons were kept.

They entered the elevator as Troy pressed the number 25 and the doors closed again. Gabriella shrugged, and Troy got the feeling that Gabriella was just hoping as much as he was that Jenson was there and they would catch him once and for all before Molly got even more hurt and traumatized. "I don't, but even if he's not there, that's where he keeps his weapons and…" Troy saw Gabriella look down at the ground and avoid his eye contact as she shut her eyes briefly. "machines…" Gabriella said slowly as she opened her eyes with narrow slits.

Troy knew something was up as he turned his body more to look at Gabriella who readjusted the ice pack on her cheek. "What kind of machines?" Troy asked quietly.

Gabriella looked up at him as she blinked, and it seemed that all the fear that was just there in her eyes went away, or at least was pushed to the back of her mind. Gabriella shook her head, "Just some contraptions that I wouldn't want anyone to experience."

Troy nodded as the doors opened and there were various people swiftly walking around with clipboards in hands and white lab coats on, as there were various doors that they could choose from.

"This way." Troy said as he chose the door that was in the exact middle. "So we just charge right in without back up?" Troy asked unsurely as he led Gabriella over to various lockers and shelves that held various types of guns.

Gabriella shrugged, "The more people we bring into this the messier, plus we draw attention to ourselves if we have cop cars around the neighborhood of the scene." Gabriella said as she had a glint in her eye as she held up a hand gun and smirked as she aimed it at one of the bulls eye posters on the wall.

Troy let out a laugh as she put the gun down, "I agree, Chad and I never really used back up."

Gabriella smiled up at Troy as she put the gun in her waist band. "So you've met Jenson before?" Gabriella asked as her voice turned to a sudden serious tone as Troy put his own personal gun in it's holder on his waist as it was covered by the suit jacket he was wearing.

Troy sighed, through other people's cases. "Kind of…" Gabriella gave him a quizzical look as they started heading out of the room again, the only place they had left to go was the warehouse itself now. "Well,…I have heard plenty of him, and whenever Chad and I were on a case Jenson would show up halfway through and some other agent would get his case because, well…Chad and I couldn't just drop our case to work on his and by the time we were done Jenson had supposedly fled the country."

Troy didn't even realize that they were in the elevator as it opened and they were back in the underground parking. They both started walking towards the black SUV as Gabriella spoke up, "Well then, there's something you should know."

Troy looked up at her as they neared the end of their vehicle. "He talks to you." Gabriella stated bitterly. "He acts like he knows you because most of the time he does. I don't know how he does it, but he does and he will use it against you. He gets inside your head and…" Gabriella sighed, "When you're fighting him he talks and you end up listening more than playing defense,…and he will crush you."

Gabriella looked up into Troy's bright blue eyes that seemed to be taking in everything that she was saying. They looked to be about the same color they were right before he kissed her right after they got their assignment.

It was something about the way that Troy was showing that he cared about her more now that drew her closer to him. It was the way that he looked at her when she talked instead of concentrating on her body. It was the way that he was showing her his nice side and was leaving his past cases in the past where they belonged that was pulling her closer to him.

Gabriella took a shaky breath…but nothing could happen. They were partners, but that wasn't the biggest thing they had to worry about, it was Jenson. Maybe once all this shit was taken care of then she would let her heart take control, but for now she would have to push her feelings aside.

Gabriella stepped back as she broke the staring contest between them and moved to her side of the car, "Let's go Bolton." Gabriella opened the door as it took Troy a second longer. She felt like she had to call him by his last name to just remind her that they had to keep things work related. She didn't know exactly when he started being nice and open to the idea of a new partner, but at least they weren't fighting…most of the time.

* * *

Troy pulled up in the parking lot of a creepy looking abandoned warehouse that had no windows, smoke was coming out from one of the vents on the roof, and the warehouse's paint was chipping. Troy looked around the parking lot and saw no cars, so that was either a good sign or a very bad one.

"Ready?" Troy asked even though he knew the answer as Gabriella took out her gun with a smirk.

"Oh yeah." Gabriella got out of the car followed by Troy who by now had his own gun out. "So you think the door is locked?"

Troy shrugged, "If I was some creepy psycho I think that would be the last thing on my mind." Gabriella stayed back three feet as Troy slowly turned the doorknob and sure enough, it opened to a dark open space.

They had their guns ready, outstretched in front of them as they slowly entered looking everywhere, but found it useless as the lights were all off and the only light coming in was from the outside sunlight, but even that wasn't bright since it was supposed to rain later that day.

Gabriella saw Troy walk in further before he disappeared from her sight. Gabriella held her gun tighter as she walked backwards and started groping the walls by the now closed door for a light switch…wait, they didn't close the doors.

Gabriella gripped her gun tighter still has her knuckles turned white and her back was flat against the wall as she heard no sound. There were no sounds of Troy walking, no sounds of the cars outside, no sound except her own breathing as she tried one last time to grope around the wall for the little light switch.

It was as if it was happening in slow motion as Gabriella stood upright when the bright lights turned on without her doing anything or finding anything to press as her eyes blinked to adjust to the blinding lights.

She looked ahead of herself expecting to see someone, but only saw Troy on the other side of the spacious room with his hand outstretched on the light switch. Gabriella sighed as she walked forward and turned her head various ways as Troy did the same and they slowly were making their ways towards the middle of the area.

"It looks clear." Gabriella said slowly as Troy could see that she was being skeptical and he slowly eyed the area up and down too.

Gabriella was right, there were all kinds of different contraptions here and one thing that really caught his eye was something that shouldn't. How could Jenson have the same model that they used for training? Troy walked closer to the chair that had the head piece connected to it and the piece that connects to your jaw. How in the world did he have the same exact thing?

Troy shook his head, there was no way that Jenson would leave all his weapons unprotected. "No, there's something…" Troy trailed off as he looked around at the ceiling fans that were running and broken gun pieces on the work tables.

Troy and Gabriella picked up their breathing as they heard clapping coming from the balcony up above them as they moved three steps to the side to see none other than Jenson staring at them with his beady little eyes and a wicked smirk on his face as he seemed to let his stare linger on Gabriella longer than Troy.

Troy felt Gabriella's breath get caught in her throat before she let out a shaky breath and that's when he noticed them, four guys standing by the two exits of the buildings. All of them having built figures and equally disgusting smirks on their faces.

"I guess I under estimated you two." Jenson's voice cut through the air like a razor as he stepped closer to the railing of the edge of the balcony. Jenson looked directly at Gabriella as she had her gun pointed up at Jenson and Troy had his rotating at the four guys blocking their way out as he made sure that they weren't advancing.

"Ella…" Jenson greeted as Troy felt Gabriella wince behind him as their backs were together. "I've been counting the days until we'd meet again. The pleasure is all mine." Jenson had a tick to him. "I never would've expected you to be working with _Bolton_ though."

"Don't listen to him Br--Montez." Troy whispered out of the corner of his mouth. Troy stood his ground as he glared at the guys blocking the exits, making sure no one heard him say his nickname for Gabriella, he didn't want Jenson to somehow use that against them either, it seemed he had enough things for ammo.

"Put your hands up Jenson and no one has to get hurt!" Gabriella called as Jenson gave a good throaty laugh.

"You wouldn't hurt me anyways since I have the girl." Jenson smirked. "You need me to get to her, I'm actually looking forward to working with you. Just like the old days…" Jenson began to slowly pace with a menacing smile on his face as Troy felt Gabriella tense up behind him. "Although things have changed like…you aren't a snotty little brat, I believe I taught you that lesson of back talking? Did I not?" Jenson smiled sweetly at her as Gabriella's eyes dared not to leave his and even though Troy couldn't see Gabriella at the moment, he knew he was losing her to Jenson's words.

"You aren't scared, pleading to be let go…and you seemed to lose that cute little sparkle in your eye that I complimented you on everyday you were with me." Jenson stopped talking abruptly.

"Montez, listen to me." Troy whispered as he waited a second.

He heard a very meek voice, "Yeah?"

"You need to block him out. That was in the past, almost ten years ago. You're fine, you're going to be fine, you aren't going to get hurt." Troy reassured her.

"You two would be cute together. Too bad one of you is going to die, and I can guarantee you one thing…Ella, I have plans for you later on." There was a pause as Gabriella and Troy both heard a noise and saw that the four guys were advancing on them. "Let the show begin." Jenson said with pleasure as he watched eagerly as his henchmen approached Troy and Gabriella making a circle around them.

"I'll take the two on the left, you get the right." Gabriella whispered to Troy and before Gabriella or Troy could pull the trigger to their guns they were attacked. The guy with a tattoo on his upper arm kicked the gun out of Gabriella's hand as she felt the other guy that had a scar on his cheek tackle her to the ground.

She quickly scrambled up and saw that both her's and Troy's guns were about thirty feet away from them as Troy just punched the red haired guy.

She turned around and jabbed the man with the tattoo in the gut with her foot and spun around to upper cut the scar face man. Gabriella felt something hit her back as she fell forcefully to the ground face first as she was slightly panting. If she wasn't going to be able to take these guys out, then she was at least going to do something productive. She quickly reached into her pocket and took out the little tracking device as the man with the tattoo reached her, she clamped onto his ankle and fastened it on to the heel of his shoe without him looking as he was trying to kick her off. Gabriella log rolled away from his range as she quickly pushed herself up off the ground with a smirk.

"That's a nasty bruise you got on your face Ella!" Jenson called as Gabriella was stupid enough to look left and up at him as she saw stars pass through her vision as she was whipped to the side as her face collided with a fist and she stumbled back.

Gabriella felt one of the guys grab her around her neck, applying little pressure as he still had a firm grasp and the other guy glaring at her while licking his lips in the creepiest way possible. What she saw next terrified her as one of the guys Troy was fighting was on the ground with a puddle of blood around his head, but that wasn't what was wrong. It was the red haired male pulling something out of his pocket that looked a lot like a needle.

Gabriella looked up at Jenson as she struggled against the enemy. Did he know that they were coming and that's why they were so prepared? But how would he know? There wasn't a way that he could somehow tap into the CIA's database, but Gabriella knew better than to rule things out when it came to Jenson because he was full of surprises.

The male that wasn't holding her anymore retreated as he was running back to Jenson, up the flight of stairs near the wall. Gabriella looked at Troy again as she was more concerned about him then what Jenson was doing next.

She saw Troy going to punch the guy in the stomach, but he moved and Troy hit him in the left shoulder that wasn't the side that was holding the needle. Gabriella thought about what could be in the needle. Gabriella wouldn't put it past Jenson to drug them, but what kind? Unless…Gabriella paled as she stopped struggling in the guys grip, it couldn't be, could it?

Gabriella had only heard and seen of it once. It was the clear liquid that he used on her mom. It took up to three hours to kill as the symptoms started almost immediately. There was no name for it, and there was only one antidote made since Jenson was the only one to know about it.

Gabriella was breathing irregular as she threw her head back and had the back of her head collide with the man's face as he instantly let go of her and she started making her way over to Troy and the red haired guy as fast as she could, but let out a small groan as she was tackled to the floor.

This got Troy's attention as he turned his head for a split second and saw Gabriella kick the guy in the face and quickly prop herself back up, but that's when he felt it. Right when his eye's connected with Gabriella's wide eyes, the needle in his neck as it was pulled out as soon as it was put in. He blinked a couple of times before his hand reached up and felt the spot that the needle was just injecting something into his flesh.

"Troy…" Gabriella said with disbelief as he looked behind him to see that the person he was fighting had already retreated with the guy that Gabriella just kicked up the stairs and past Jenson to another door that Troy guessed led to the roof. "Here…" Gabriella said as he felt her take his hand off of his neck as she examined his neck. "Are you okay?" Gabriella asked with worry.

Troy looked down at her, "They got away."

"Don't worry about that now." Gabriella hushed softly as she turned swiftly and glared up at Jenson with hate that she had only felt once before and that was at her parent's funeral. "WHAT DID YOU DO!?" She demanded as her closed fists were shaking.

Jenson laughed, "Nothing you haven't seen before. You know the drill Ella, I'll tell you the antidote in four hours seeing as Bolton here only has three more hours to live unless you somehow magically find the healing mixture."

Troy was confused. He didn't feel any different except a little weird that he had some stranger put a needle in his neck to drug him.

"TAKE IT BACK!" Gabriella screamed. She wasn't going to let Troy die. There was no way that he could, she never lost anyone in her missions, she wasn't about to let her partner die. "JENSON, TAKE IT BACK!"

Jenson made a disapproving clicking sound with his tongue as he gave Gabriella a crooked smile, "You have a choice. I can give you the antidote and save your…_partner._" Jenson said with disgust. He glared at Troy. Ever since he found out that Troy Bolton was snooping around his files in his spare time, he found that he resembled Carlos Montez in quite a few ways and he hated him for that. "Or you can save the little girl later and let Bolton die."

Gabriella looked back at Troy as he didn't look any different, but Gabriella knew that was all going to come down in a matter of minutes. Within five minutes Troy would start shaking every once in awhile involuntarily and it would just get worst from there.

"I'll be in touch Ella, let's say…seven o'clock." Gabriella knew he wasn't asking, as she glared at Jenson and watched him walk away up the stairs. Something was odd about him right now, usually he does everything out of revenge, so it wouldn't make since to kill Troy only to return the girl without getting something out of it besides one less agent that was on his case because if Jenson killed every agent that was investigating his record, then that would almost be everyone.

Gabriella turned towards Troy and swore she saw him shiver. "Is it cold in here?" Troy asked as Gabriella blinked back tears. This was only the beginning, and it would only get worse.

* * *

**Author's note--So tell me what you think. Sorry I haven't updated in a few days, I have been very busy, but I'll try to update as soon as I have more free time, but that also requires me getting reviews. Please and thank you.**


	9. Final Step

It was 5:10 a.m.

Ten minutes exactly after Troy was injected with that _poison_.

Seven minutes exactly since Gabriella saw Troy shiver.

And a minute getting into the elevator and rushing to the top floor to get the secretaries to set up a room for Troy.

--

Gabriella had her arm wrapped tightly around Troy's waist as he had an arm draped loosely over her shoulder as his other hand was massaging the temple of his right side of the face.

He had protested that he didn't need Gabriella's help with walking. She had retaliated with a low voice and a glare that made him gulp saying, 'You'll need your energy later.' Troy knew he lost the argument and wasn't arguing anymore once his head started to feel like it was running circles around him.

--

Gabriella was determined.

Gabriella was furious.

Gabriella was scared shitless and there wasn't anything she could do about it.

Now normally when Gabriella was scared which hasn't been since the last time she had a run in with Jenson when she saw her mother's lifeless cold stiff body nine years ago, she cried. She bawled her 15 year old eyes out into her mother's peaceful looking body that just laid lifelessly on the ground.

She yelled, screamed, threw a tantrum begging Jenson to bring her back. But nothing worked as Jenson just merely laughed and celebrated with a nice cold beer. Gabriella saw defeat that day and it scared her.

But Gabriella wasn't going to cry.

She was going to get through this…with Troy. Whether she had to watch them bury his body six feet under and dig him back up with her hands and do some crazy ritual you only read about to bring him back to life.

She was going to get through this **with** Troy!

--

Gabriella wasn't that dumb 15 year old. She's a fucking CIA Agent that channels her emotions into leadership and in some special cases, determination that no one could talk her out of.

So when Gabriella walked into the office that only consisted of Zeke, Jason, Taylor, Chad, the three secretaries, and some other people working busily on other cases with Troy glued to her side, everyone's heads snapped up as Gabriella's piercing voice that seemed to be getting colder and colder with each breath she took spoke throughout the office.

"Get us a Doctor and tell him Bolton has been injured." Gabriella demanded in a voice that no one has ever heard her use before, and that's because Gabriella has never felt this way before.

The blonde secretary Gabriella forgot her name from before stood up and looked at Gabriella and then Troy. Gabriella saw the hesitancy in her eye as she looked at the phone and back at Troy.

"But I don't see--"

"Get me a damn doctor." Gabriella demanded as the blonde nodded and Gabriella could hear Chad and Taylor approaching as Troy had his eyes shut and she knew. Gabriella knew very well that his headaches would come and go, but they would only get worst.

The blonde was talking quickly as she looked over Gabriella and Troy again and Chad and Taylor ran up blocking her view as Gabriella saw the worry in their eyes and Troy finally snapped his eyes open in surprise that they were standing in front of them.

"What the hell happened to you man?" Chad asked in a light hearted tone covering up his worry and doubt as he had never really seen his best friend looking so uncomfortable before.

Troy let a small smile take over his face as Gabriella knew that pretty soon he wouldn't have enough strength for that. "Jenson." He said as the sparkle and life in his voice was slowly being drained out of him.

Taylor gasped as Gabriella tightened her grip on Troy and hoisted him up more as she could just imagine the inside of Troy's body giving up already.

"What did he do?" Chad asked lowly.

"Troy don't talk." Gabriella hushed in a gentler tone than what she used with the secretary. Gabriella turned back towards Chad and Taylor. "He was injected with this…this…_poison_." Gabriella said darkly. "Jenson's the only one with the antidote and he's not willing to share until Troy's three hours are up."

"Are up?" Taylor repeated hesitantly as if she didn't get it.

"To live?" Chad asked as two doctors rushed into the office with a stretcher.

Gabriella shut her eyes as Troy's tired body was ripped out of her arms.

She breathed deeply as if taking breaths for Troy and somehow magically transferring the air into his lungs.

She followed his clad covered body in white sheets as she saw him shiver, and she knew that it wasn't from being cold.

It is an affect people get when being faced with death….and there was nothing she could do about it.

--

An hour had gone by. A long fucking hour that was putting both Troy and Gabriella into misery.

Gabriella sat against the blinding white walls in the small ten by twenty foot room that only contained a heart monitor, a cot that held Troy's shaking body as sweat was joining on his forehead that usually was a dark tan, but was slowly draining of color, a TV that you couldn't watch TV on and instead it was for watching someone if you needed to get into contact with them on a different floor for a quick conversation, a video surveillance camera, and a phone.

Gabriella had her knees bent up as her hands were resting on the kneecaps and her head was against the wall while her eyes were transfixed distantly on the steel door that was a couple of feet away from her. There was a little window that was no bigger than a football as the nurses or doctors would look through that since they didn't know what this poison was so they couldn't take any chances if it might be air borne. And if they really did have to come into the room for a blood test then they would suit up in the bright white suits and gas masks with the gloves and white body suits covering any of their exposed skin.

But Gabriella knew.

She knew that there was no way to get what was happening to Troy unless you were injected with the poison and that just wasn't possible unless Jenson somehow magically broke into the CIA and picked everyone off one by one without others noticing.

Gabriella heard a small whimper as she immediately snapped her head to the side and crawled over quickly towards Troy's body finding it faster than standing up and walking over and then bending over again.

"B-Brie?" Troy asked as he licked his lips desperately trying to get them to moisten so he didn't stutter and sound like a dying man…even though he was failing to convince himself that.

"Shh…" Gabriella soothed as she wiped his matted bangs off to the side of his head as his usual blue eyes seemed to be getting lighter and lighter. "Everything's gonna be okay. They're running tests and I have everyone in the labs working on your case." Gabriella reassured him as she felt a pang of more than worry in the bottom of her stomach.

"Monte--" Troy tried to sit up as Gabriella saw this and her first instinct took over. She put both of her hands on his two shoulders and held him down to the mattress forcing him to keep laying down. Troy let out a little groan as he knew that he was defeated. "Brie…" He still needed to say this. "I have a mom and a dad…"

Gabriella took in a sharp intake of air as she fought to hold the tears back at just how familiar this situation seemed. She knew they were about to have a heart to heart conversation. Then Troy would try to get in one joke. And finally, he would be too weak to do anything and would slowly drift off into a sleep he wouldn't wake up from. It was all too familiar.

"Bolton." Gabriella tried cutting him off but he shook his head to the right and left pathetically.

"I haven't talked to them since my last year of college." He said as his voice was becoming raspy and he licked his lips again swallowing a hard lump in his throat. Trying to allow all the air that he was sucking in to reach his lungs. "Tell them I'm sorry."

Gabriella felt one tear go down her cheek. She was letting out staggered breaths as she tried to control her emotions and gathered up all the inner strength she had and declared, "No."

Troy's face slowly contorted into confusion as Gabriella continued with a less dominant voice. "I refuse. You're not going to die so you can do it yourself. I refuse to do your second hand work."

Gabriella saw a small minuscule smile curve onto Troy's face as his right hand that wasn't under the cotton white sheet moved an inch and rested slightly on Gabriella's pinky as she was guessing he was having a hard time seeing things and everything seemed blurry to him.

"Promise me." His voice shook as Gabriella shut her eyes debating whether or not to actually do it. Because promising Troy would be like admitting he was already dead and that was just not something Gabriella wanted to do. Gabriella shook her head as her eyes stayed shut and she bit her bottom lip keeping the sad whimper inside her mouth. "Pl-please Brie."

Gabriella snapped her eyes open and her mouth was slightly ajar now. She took in a shaky breath as some people would assume she was the one slowly dying. "I promise."

You could barely hear her much less with a huge headache that felt was going to eat your head. Your vision was coming and going as sometimes you could barely make out peoples' faces and just their form. You were having a somewhat hard time breathing as you could hear your heart beating ever so slowly.

People say that you see your whole life in a blink of an eye right before death…but Troy…couldn't think of anything besides the girl next to him as he only had an hour and forty minutes left, and he knew.

He knew that he had given up and it was all just a matter of time.

--

Gabriella blinked her blood shot eyes to adjust to the lights that were less dim in the hallway than in the little death room they were keeping Troy in. She looked left and right to see which way she should go to find orange juice for Troy since she figured it might be better than water since it had sugar in it which will give him some energy.

Gabriella sighed as she didn't get to move from her spot as Chad and Taylor came running up to her. Chad was slightly panting as Taylor came stopping in front of Gabriella moments later.

She knew Chad would've been at Troy's side if he didn't have his own case that they were still working on and Gabriella could see the guilt and worry in his eyes.

"How is he?" Chad asked desperately as Gabriella shut her eyes not wanting to see the defeat and sadness in his eyes as she felt Taylor's hand grab her own and give it a light squeeze.

Gabriella opened her eyes as she licked her bottom lip nervously as she self consciously looked back behind her shoulder to see through the small window Troy's limp arm being held up as a clad covered Doctor was taking another blood sample.

"He's…" Gabriella voice cracked with just that one word. "We need to do something and--" Gabriella was cut off by a man no older than twenty running down to them from a long hallway.

"We have a location! We have a location." The man who's nametag read, Nick said with a satisfied smile on his face and Gabriella recognized him to be the man who was in charge of the tracking device she set on one of Jenson's men.

Gabriella turned to him, "It's a mansion isn't it?" Gabriella asked as she already knew the answer.

"Yeah, but not just any mansion…one that has been rented out to people except for the last year by Jenson's great grandfather Joey Jackson who said in his will wanted to keep the house in the family when he died, but Jenson's grandma kept the house in his name if something like a 'family' problem came up."

Gabriella's face paled as she thought that that mansion was demolished nine years ago. "Wait…Jackson and Jenson? I don't get it." Chad said as he scratched the top of his head and it was then Gabriella noticed the tired looks in his and Taylor's eyes.

"Well it turns out Joey Jackson was on his mothers side so they wouldn't have the same last name." Nick explained as he handed Gabriella a packet that held information about the location, but she didn't need it since that was the place she spent three weeks in.

"Gabi, are you okay? You look like you've seen a ghost." Tay pointed out as Gabriella could feel all three sets of eyes on her looking her tired body over.

Gabriella looked up, "Not a ghost, just a familiar house." Gabriella turned towards Nick. "Did the papers say anything about this house being rebuilt years back?" Gabriella asked.

"Yeah, how did you--never mind." Nick decided that he really shouldn't be asking how she knew that since it wasn't his job to second guess her. "Actually it happened around eight to nine years ago, but the weird thing is…the person who hired the constructor told him to build it over again exactly the way it was before. Same material, same wood, and he even got the same furniture." Nick went on.

"Gabi, do you know something?" Taylor asked as she knew that look on Gabriella's face.

"Thanks Nick. Keep monitoring the tracking device and report back to me if he's on the move." Gabriella instructed as Nick nodded and started walking away.

"Gabs, what's going on?" Chad asked.

Gabriella looked at him with all the happiness, sadness, tiredness out of her eyes. She was dead serious and anyone that looked at her right now would think that she was a real hard ass. "This is the place I was taken to nine years ago. I know it like the back of my hand."

"Gabi, are you sure?" Taylor asked as Chad looked at the two girls confused since he didn't know anything of Gabriella's past.

"It's something I will never be able to forget Tay. I know the rooms, the colors, the carpet, the exits…I was there for three whole fucking weeks. I just thought they never rebuilt it." Gabriella said as she shook her head of her thoughts. "Um…we need orange juice, where's the vendy machines?" Gabriella questioned Chad as he looked at her strangely, trying to figure out how she would know all of this.

"Um…" Chad pointed to the right, "Down that way and turn left."

Gabriella nodded as she started walking down the halls as she heard Chad's voice telling Taylor that he would only take a minute to talk to Troy and then they had to go suit up for a busting downtown.

--

Gabriella opened the big steel door and shut it carefully with a glass of orange juice in hand.

Time was ticking down as it was just taunting Gabriella that there was nothing that she could do. They had an hour and twenty minutes until eight o'clock exactly which meant Jenson would somehow be getting into contact with her which still left Gabriella puzzled.

Gabriella slowly tip toed closer to Troy so the noise didn't disturb him and the quietness his head ache became used to in the twenty minutes she was gone getting the orange juice, running into Chad, Taylor, Nick, and a Doctor that informed her of Troy's status and antidote.

Gabriella leaned forward a little as Troy's eyes were closed and more sweat was trickling down the sides of his face and forehead. His face was becoming paler and paler by each ticking second. His body was limp as his chest was barely moving.

Gabriella's eyes widened as Troy barely looked to be moving at all. "Bolton?" Gabriella's voice came out in a scared frightened kind of way as if she was afraid that he would pop up and say he was just kidding. She got no response but what the doctor told her scared her.

She thought that it was alright if he slept some and reserved his energy, but the Doctor had other thoughts. He told her that if he falls into sleep then he might not wake up until he was given the antidote, and if no antidote was supplied then that was it and he would flat line.

"Bolton?" Gabriella called again as she neared him closer. Her voice shook and quivered as he gave no response. "Troy?" Gabriella dropped down on her knee caps and put the orange juice by his phone on the side table as her two hands gripped his. "Troy?" Gabriella whispered as tears were in her eyes. No, this couldn't be it. This couldn't be it for them as partners. It couldn't be happening.

Troy gasped for air as his eyes opened causing Gabriella to gasp with him out of surprise. Gabriella let out a heavy breath of relief as she brought up Troy's hand in her two small hands and rested her forehead against them as she looked down at the white sheet.

"God Bolton." Gabriella breathed out as she continued to just stare at the sheet with her head down and his hand along with her own two hands to be intertwined. "Don't do that to me."

Troy curled his lips up slowly as if it was painful to move, "Just resting my eyes a bit." Troy's raspy voice said as Gabriella looked up and slowly laid his hand down again as she brought the orange juice into view.

"Here…um…." Gabriella put the orange juice in front of him as if expecting Troy could do it himself, but then realized he couldn't as a small blush took over her face. "Here." Gabriella said as she took a straw out of her pocket and put it in and brought the glass to his mouth as he eagerly, but yet slowly drank it as if savoring it's taste.

"You know, I talked to the Doctor. Do you want the good news or bad news first?" Gabriella asked as she met his lifeless used-to-be blue eyes that were growing fainter and fainter.

Troy didn't say anything as his shoulders lifted up and then down again in what was supposed to be a shrug. Gabriella sighed as she moved his bangs out of his eyes again. She found that being put into this situation was drawing out her feelings towards Troy even more, even though she would never admit that. Not yet that is.

"The good news is they found something unusual about your blood and they're working on breaking down the odd chemicals in your system to see if they can find their opposites or something." Gabriella looked down at Troy with sympathy as it was really hard seeing someone like this.

Without thinking she lifted the cotton thin white sheet up towards his face and gently patted the running sweat away and tucked it under his arm again.

"The bad news is I know how much you want to go to sleep and rest your eyes, but…you can't." Gabriella's chest clamped down as she saw Troy's face fall and was about to speak when she beat him to it. "I'm so sorry, but…he said that if you fall asleep anymore that you won't wake up unless you get that antidote. And they don't want to take that chance because they still think Jenson might be bluffing about the three hours…"

Troy studied Gabriella as she looked down at the ground with a saddened face on.

"And you don't." Troy didn't ask it.

He didn't glare at her with distaste because he thought she was lying to him.

He didn't question her state of mind of whether or not she was crazy.

He simple restated her as he let it sink in further than what it already was.

Gabriella shut her eyes as she felt tears prick at her eyes. "I am so sorry. I am so so sorry." Gabriella pleaded as she opened her eyes and she saw Troy shiver.

He didn't blink.

He didn't disconnect eye contact.

He picked up his hand that was slightly going numb and in a perfect world he would grasp her hand tenderly and tell her he felt fine despite the thought his mind felt like it was going to explode, his fingers were going numb one at a time as he no longer could feel his left pinky, and he was so cold but was sweating.

But this wasn't a perfect world so as he raised his hand to move it, it feel down heavily and just laid on Gabriella's. Troy tried to transfer some kind of sign that he was okay without words, but…Gabriella just looked surprised as she looked at his hand that was laying on his and then back into his eyes.

"You're acting like you're gonna die soon." Troy said with a smile as he was preparing for that one to be his last as Gabriella's heart dropped.

That was the second step even though it was a stupid joke, but who would be able to come up with a clever joke at a time like this?

Troy felt a wet tear drop down on his hand and it wasn't his own.

They both knew there was only one more step to do and that was just to let go.

* * *

**Author's note-- So tell me what you think. I actually kind of like this chapter. Let me know in a review and I'll update sooner. Please and Thank you.**


	10. Demands

Gabriella's hand was clasped in Troy's as both of their eyes were drooping shut. The past day coming down on them as they had gone through a whole days worth of notes, Gabriella went home and went through more notes, and then Troy came knocking on her door as they went to Chris's, the agency, and then they were attacked by Jenson and Troy was still dying.

Gabriella blinked back tears as she didn't dare look down at Troy's pale body as she felt his hand shaking a bit. "Troy?" Gabriella's voice came out weak as she picked her head up and looked at Troy to see that he was struggling to keep his eyes open. Gabriella blinked her eyes open to make sure that she didn't fall asleep with the depressing thought of Troy dying as she knew she had to keep Troy awake or else that could be the last time she saw him alive.

"Hey…" Gabriella cooed quietly in a whisper as if it was some big secret and she had on her fake smile that was putting on a show of reassuring Troy that everything was going okay down in the lab, but they both knew it wasn't. "You have to stay awake." Gabriella reminded him softly as she brought her second hand up and clasped onto the same hand she was holding.

Troy swallowed a dry lump in his throat as he felt that his world was spinning. His eyes hurt just looking up at the lights as there was no way that he had enough energy to lift his hand up and shield the light away for the whole hour and ten minutes he was supposed to have left of his life.

It hurt even more thinking about it as he realized that this was it. Of course, it would hurt anyone if this was their life. He wasn't ready to die. He had so many things he had yet to accomplish and one of those things included trusting that certain brunette that put a smile on his lips every time he saw her, or made his heart rate speed up just stepping into the room.

"So…" Gabriella's eyes shimmered with hope as she her eye contact back to him and then it dropped once his faded voice continued, "You're probably gonna get a new partner after this."

Gabriella let out a deep breath she didn't know she had in her as her hands gripped tighter onto Troy's one hand as her weak brown eyes hardened at Troy's sight. Why the hell would he be telling this to her now? Didn't he think that he was gonna live? But then again, it wasn't like she was giving him any hope as all of a sudden her demeanor changed and she sat up straighter and her eyes lit up with false hope and this was one of Gabriella's talents: Conceal her emotions.

"Don't talk like that." Gabriella spoke perfectly clear in a calmness Troy hadn't heard yet since he was told he only had three hours to live. "You're not going to die."

Troy's smile was thin as he made a mental note in his head that he had to admire Gabriella for putting such a brace act on around him now. It meant a lot to him that she was actually staying with him in his dying hour instead of being down at the lab and tracking Jenson herself.

Troy shivered again as he felt the hot lights up above him shine even brighter down on him and he looked at Gabriella to see if she noticed the light change, or maybe it was just him as Gabriella continued to lightly stroke her thumb over his knuckles and stare down at him in a daze.

If he wasn't so weak he would've leaned up and kissed her in the moment, but he figured it wasn't a moment for that since they weren't a movie where the main character all of a sudden got an extra energy boost just because the directors wanted him to. He was just a regular guy that was trained to save people's lives even though he couldn't save his own.

He was going to die and he was slowly coming to terms with it, at least it wouldn't bet hat painful and all he had to do was drift off to sleep and that was it, but he wanted to make sure that Gabriella understood that he liked her. He felt like he owed her that with the first couple of days they knew each other, he owed her something.

"Brie…" Troy sighed and tried to speak in an even tone. "I want you to know…No, I need you to know that since day one I admired you."

Gabriella shut her eyes as her body became stiff and Troy could feel it with just touching her hands. She opened her eyes and the hope was still there, "Troy, do not do this. You're so much stronger than this, you can fight this."

Troy's lips curled as he noticed Gabriella didn't stop him from calling her by his nickname for her and that she called him by his first name instead of last.

Gabriella knew that she was lying to Troy as she knew that it was gonna get worst in a little while. When her mom was injected with this and she had only 45 minutes to live, she got so cold that her lips started turning blue, but she was burning up. Gabriella never fully understood that, but it got to the point where her mom's temperature got so bad that she was sweating even more and could hardly think straight and she could barely move her body as she had no energy left. Truth was, Gabriella didn't know if she could watch Troy go through that.

"I can't fight this. I…the doctors…and even you know that. But thanks for trying." Troy wanted to smile, he wanted to just hug Gabriella and tell her that everything would be okay, but he ended up doing the opposite as he didn't exactly know why he was putting a damper on Gabriella's optimism, but he just wanted to remind himself not to get false hope.

"No." Gabriella said shortly. "I promise you that we will get the antidote." Gabriella said it with such determination that she almost convinced herself that they would, and it seemed to work for a while, but in the back of her mind she knew that it was highly unlikely, but that didn't mean that she wouldn't try.

Troy nodded as best as he could to just calm Gabriella's nerves and let her think that he believed her. He didn't know what else would happen to him, but he was pretty sure that it had nothing to do with the antidote.

"I believe you." Troy said as his mouth was slightly ajar anticipating what was gonna happen as Gabriella was leaning closer and their eyes stayed on each other as if granting the other one permission to be in such close proximity.

Gabriella's hands were still gripping Troy's cold limp hand as his chest was directly below hers and her nose was slowly moving against his and their lips grazed each other.

It started off as a tentative kiss as neither one would admit that they knew exactly what they were doing. It was risky, they both knew that as if someone found out about them then the enemies could use it against them.

Gabriella's mouth stayed in rhythm with Troy's as he wanted that kiss, but his energy was barely keeping him going, but nothing was going to stop him now that it was happening. Their mouths opened as Gabriella's tongue slipped into Troy's mouth and explored the warm cracks and crevices.

They both knew that this was against the CIA's rules too, but then again that never stopped other agents from having an office relationship. And that sure as hell didn't stop Gabriella's parents as they ended up getting married and having a kid, she was living proof that this agency didn't have the time to check into everyone's personal lives by putting it's workers in front of the victims of the world.

Troy felt a cold tear drop down onto his cheek and Gabriella pulled away but kept her forehead resting on his. There were more tears as Gabriella sniffled and a tired faded blue met dark sad brown.

"Five days…" Gabriella said quietly as Troy's eyes bored into her.

He saw the bags underneath her eyes, her hair was in a messy bun so it wasn't getting in her way, and she had that bruise on her cheek, but yet…she still looked beautiful.

"Wh-what?" Troy asked confused laced into his voice.

"We've known each other for five days." Gabriella smiled as one of her hands reached up and ran through his matted down hair and made it stick up slightly as it continued to play with his darkened hair that usually was a light brown.

"Five long days." Troy added which made Gabriella let out a whisper of a laugh.

There was a silence as Gabriella's hand that was in his hair ran down the side of his face gently and held his cheek. "I've never felt this way before in this short amount of time." She admitted.

Troy was surprised that she was admitting these feelings, but of course when you were in a room with someone who had exactly an hour and a minute to live emotions were bound to run high. That was another reason why they didn't want you to have personal relationships with your partner, because you were too emotionally attached.

"Me too." Troy said quietly. He had had plenty of girlfriends throughout high school and college, but ever since he started his job he found that it was useless as he was busy all the time.

"I don't want to run anymore. Life is too short." Gabriella said as Troy lifted his chin and connected their lips to which Gabriella eagerly responded too. Troy's trembling hand reached up and rested on Gabriella's upper arm as Gabriella was about to slip her tongue into his mouth.

Gabriella was feeling all these emotions. She had only known him five days, and she knew it wasn't love because she believed that in order to love someone you had to trust them, and she had big trust issues even though some people would disagree with her. But she just didn't want to let go of Troy. She would do anything if that meant saving him.

Gabriella and Troy broke apart with Troy even more breathless than before as a loud high pitch alarm could be heard going off and the lights started flashing and flicking on and off in the halls as Gabriella and Troy both turned their heads to see Doctors and Nurses rushing past their door.

"What the"

"Hell?" Troy finished for Gabriella as they saw security guards rushing past the football size window.

The alarm kept going off as they saw a flashing red light go off out in the hallway to indicate something was wrong just incase you couldn't hear the alarm buzzing through the air.

"Has this ever happened before?" Gabriella asked with panic in her voice as even more security guards ran past their room shouting things into their walky-talkies.

"_THE SYSTEM IS SHUTTING DOWN!"_

"_SOMETHING IS TRYING TO GET THROUGH! WE NEED BACK UP!"_

"_CODE 254! SYSTEMS FAILING!"_

"What the hell does that mean?" Gabriella asked out loud as the hand that Troy had on her upper arm fell to connect with Gabriella's hand again.

"I don't--I don't remember what code that was." Troy said as Gabriella nodded.

"Okay…I'll be right back." Gabriella said as she was about to stand up everything went black and fell back to the floor with an 'oomph'.

The TV started to fizz as it cast a dim light on the faces of Gabriella and Troy.

"I don't like this." Gabriella said. There was something definitely off about it.

"This is really bad." Troy whispered in his raspy voice.

They were both staring at the TV as the screen became even clearer and tiny voices could be heard as the screen panned out to be in a dark room with what looked like to be a desk.

"Hello CIA Agents. I see you've been following me. If you just wanted to know where I was you could've just asked Ella and Bolton…that is if Bolton is still alive." The wicked deep voice spoke crystal clear as Gabriella narrowed her eyes and looked at the clock. Sure enough it was 7 o'clock and Jenson said that he would be getting into contact with her.

Jenson walked onto the screen and sat behind his desk, folding his hands professionally on top of the wooden desk.

"So now you have a choice Ella…" Jenson's voice was dark and menacing as the crooked smile was on his face and Gabriella just wanted to rip it off even though he couldn't see her or hear her.

"I will give you the girl in two hours and we can just forget about Bolton or I can give you the antidote in two hours at nine 'o clock." Jenson smirked.

"Those aren't choices, either way he has it planned so you die." Gabriella said with disbelief, but she knew somewhere along the line that Jenson wouldn't give her a fair choice.

"I'll be in touch, let's say around nine o'clock. And think hard Ella, because Molly says she misses her house." Jenson laughed as Troy's grip on her hand tightened. "But don't worry…we're taking good care of her. She has her own room, she gets three meals a day, snacks, and occasionally she gets to talk to people. I'll be in touch, and you do know where to reach me. Don't disappoint me Ella." Jenson said in his sick twisted way that made Gabriella want to puke.

The TV shut off as the lights turned back on making Troy and Gabriella blink to readjust their eyes to the blazing lights.

Gabriella turned to look at Troy and saw that he was sweating even more and his hand was beginning to get warm and his face looked hot and this was the start of the fever. Gabriella knew what she had to do, and if she wasn't going to succeed she was at least gonna die trying.

Gabriella stood up dropping Troy's hand as he looked at her confused. Gabriella bent over and put her hand to his forehead and gasped at how hot he actually was.

"Where are you--"

"Troy, you're burning up. Come on, we have to get you out from under the covers." Gabriella said as she started stripping the covers off of his body. "I think we should take your dress shirt off and I'll go find you some shorts or something, or at least send someone to do that." Gabriella said softly as she started to unbutton the buttons on his shirt to reveal a white undershirt.

"Where are you gonna be?" Troy asked groggily.

"Sh…" Gabriella hushed, "I'll be right back. I promise, just let me go get some help." Gabriella said as she sent him one last worried glance and walked out of the room to see people still frantically running around the offices and hallways.

Gabriella walked down the hallway and over to the elevators to see that they were out of order. She found this odd as she moved to the stairs and ran into a Doctor that she recognized.

"Oh wait Doctor." Gabriella put her hand on his arm and he turned to look at him as a look of nerves passed his face but was quickly replaced with a comforting smile. "Are you by any chance going to Troy Bolton's room?"

He nodded, "I was just heading there to see if anything had changed. Why, what can I do for you?"

"He's burning up and I think it's getting to the point where he'll need to have ice packs or something put on him, and he'll need probably different clothes."

"I understand, I'll take his temp because the last time I checked he was turning cold, but I'll see what I can do. I promise I'll help your boyfriend as much as I can." The Doctor reassure her as Gabriella nearly choked on air.

"Boy-boyfriend? Oh no, we're not together. We're just partners." Gabriella said.

The Doctor nodded. "I'm sorry Miss."

"That's okay." Gabriella said as she looked at the elevators. "Do you, um…actually know what is up with the elevators?" Gabriella asked.

"All the main power is out and the lights and medical equipment are running on backup generators. But there's stairs over there." The Doctor pointed to the stair case and Gabriella nodded again.

"Thank you sir."

"No problem miss, and you take care now." The Doctor swiftly walked off after that and Gabriella continued towards the stair cases. She had to get to the office to inform the secretaries that she was suiting up and heading out.

Gabriella jogged the flights of stairs and opened the doors to the office and saw almost everyone freaking out and shouting things to their partners checking if their computers, tracking devices, and other electronics were working.

Gabriella looked around and saw that Taylor and Chad were there again even though they were supposed to be busy with their assignment.

"Oh my God. Gabi!" Taylor called as she ran over to Gabriella and Gabriella looked at her confused.

"Aren't you supposed to be out on the streets?" Gabriella asked as Chad walked up looking worried.

"It was a dead end. We have to interrogate some more people. How's Troy?" Chad asked. "After seeing Jenson for the first time in semi-person, I can only guess why he's so focused on killing Troy. It's not like Troy was hunting him down or anything." Chad said with slight anger.

Gabriella really looked confused as more shouting could be heard and people in the background could be heard making rustling noises with papers and slamming of desk drawers.

"You saw the recording?" Gabriella asked surprised.

"Yeah, who didn't. It was on all the TV's here." Taylor said, "How are you holding up?"

Gabriella shrugged, "Fine, I guess. But uh…Troy doesn't have that much time left so…I'm going in." Gabriella said.

"What?" Chad and Taylor both asked at the same time making Gabriella wince in response.

"You guys haven't seen him, he's burning up and the doctor's are gonna put ice packs on him and…I can't stand to see him like that, so I'm going in. It's useless waiting here for the stupid antidote when Jenson has it all along." Gabriella tried to convince them.

"We'll come with." Chad said quickly with determination.

"No." Gabriella shook her head. She didn't want to drag them down with her if it didn't go as planned. "It's too risky."

"Compared to you going in by yourself." Taylor exclaimed. "There's no question, we're coming with."

Gabriella shook her head. She was really loving the two right now, but she wouldn't allow them to go with her fully. "How about if I'm not back by 8:30 then you two come." Gabriella saw the hesitancy in her friends faces. "Please guys, someone has to stay here with Troy and keep him awake." Gabriella said with urgency as there was even more noise in the background.

Taylor sighed. She knew Gabriella for quite a few years and she knew when her mind was made up, it was made up. "Fine. We'll stay with Troy."

Chad looked between the two girls and the disheveled office. "What the hell is happening?" Gabriella asked as she too looked around.

"Everyone lost everything in their files. Some people's things won't even start up. We're all having technical difficulties." Chad said lowly as the three of them all knew who was behind this. "Let's go." Chad said as the three started walking out of the office and towards Troy's room.

"I don't understand." Gabriella said from one side of Chad as they walked the flights of stairs. "How can one man get around all the CIA's defenses and into their computer systems to just shut everything down right under our noses?" Gabriella asked.

Chad shrugged, "I have no fucking idea, but right now Jenson seems to have all the playing cards in his hand." The three turned and walked down the hallway that led to Troy's room.

"Doesn't the CIA have backups?" Taylor asked.

"We should, but sadly…we have all been busy on these huge ass cases." Chad explained gruffly as Gabriella opened Troy's room and his head slowly turned to look at them.

He had a damp washcloth on his forehead with a water bowl on the side table, had had ice packs strapped to his arms to keep him cool in his white beater and black athletic shorts the Doctor must've brought him as the covers were off of Troy revealing his tan calve muscles.

He looked so pale and weak just laying there as his matted down hair was swiped off to the side from the last time Gabriella fussed over it.

"Hey." Gabriella said quickly as Chad and Taylor stood speechless in the doorway not expecting this as the last time they saw him was almost two hours ago and he looked a lot better then. "What was your temp?" Gabriella asked as she knelt down besides him as felt the damp washcloth and decided it wasn't cool enough so she dipped it into the water bowl and put it gently on his forehead again.

"104.3 degrees." Troy answered honestly in a course voice.

Gabriella nodded as she accepted this news. "Okay, well…Chad and Tay are gonna stay here for a while as I…um….well I'm suiting up and--"

"You're not." Troy's voice broke through her own. "No. You're not going against Jenson by yourself."

"Troy, you're in no position to tell me what I can and can't do." Gabriella said softly as she smiled reassuringly down at him. "And I might not even see him, I'll just sneak in and hopefully go without being seen."

There was a silence as the only noise that could be heard was Chad and Taylor walking slowly into the room even more.

"I'll be back before nine." Gabriella said. "And if I'm not then Tay and Chad are gonna head in after me. Don't worry."

"But…the Doctor said they might have the antidote." Troy protested.

"Might?" Gabriella asked eerily.

"They said it should be done in 15 minutes and they'll try it out." Troy said weakly.

"We don't have time to waste 15 minutes, I'm sorry Troy, but…we just don't and I think you know that too." Gabriella said. "I'll be back and Tay and Chad will be here with you."

Gabriella stood up as she found that she had the urge to kiss Troy goodbye since this might be the last time that she will have seen him, but Chad and Taylor were in the room so she held back her emotions.

Troy scowled as he didn't have the energy to fight with Gabriella so he did the next best thing and looked like he was pissed at her. How could she be so stupid to go into the lion's den without protection, but then again he didn't know that she was only doing this for him and she didn't have back up because they were all busy trying to work out the computer problems Jenson started.

Gabriella saw this look, "Hey please don't be mad at me." Gabriella pleaded as Troy refused to make eye contact with her and Gabriella sighed as she turned towards Chad and Taylor.

"Um…" She felt like she was giving them instructions on how to take care of a little kid. "Keep talking to him and make sure he does not fall asleep. Do whatever you have to do to keep him awake."

They both nodded, "Check in with us and we'll be there in a heart beat if anything goes wrong." Taylor said as Gabriella and her shared a hug and Chad and Gabriella smiled at each other as Chad nodded her way.

"Good luck Gabs." Chad said.

The moment Gabriella walked out of the room and the door clicked shut Troy turned his head and looked at Chad. His voiced was weaker than before now and he was dripping with sweat as his eyes lost all the color in them.

"Follow her."

It wasn't a question, a request, or favor to be asked.

It was a demand.


	11. Time

_45 minutes._

A lot of things could happen in 45 minutes.

People who barely knew each other could work together while trying to cure their best friend or partner.

Someone could hallucinate.

Cures _**could**_ be discovered.

Someone's life could be saved…or ended.

It all related back to time, and sometimes time just wasn't on your side and you were fucked.

* * *

Gabriella's heart was pounding. Her shirt was wrinkled. Her palms were sweating. Her head was spinning. Her stomach was doing frightening flips as she let her fears swallow her up and travel down it's throat, but somewhere along the line Gabriella stopped being her pathetic 15 year old self who tried to reason with Jenson. She was far past reasoning with him as she was ready to kill, so as she travels down the throat of her worst fear she was going to make sure that they **choke.**

She had a determined face on. Her deep soft brown eyes had a sharp distinct look in them that could warn off any possible threats with a withering stare. She walked with her head held high and with such elegance that she looked absolutely perfect in everyone's eyes that they wouldn't even know what she was preparing herself for.

She passed by busy doctors, gossiping nurses, cleaning janitors, and hustling agents as she walked down the long corridor that led to various other rooms and offices. She had her gun, she had her destination, she just needed time.

Gabriella was about to take the stairs down another flight as she froze in her spot and turned her head to a running afro.

"Gabi! Gabs!" Chad yelled slightly out of breath as he came to a complete stop next to her and they both ignored the strange looks they were receiving from people passing by.

Gabriella looked at him expecting him to say something as he just looked around at the people slightly intimidated by him. "Chad." Gabriella snapped him out of scaring people away with slight irritation in her voice.

She barely knew him, but time was ticking down and they didn't have any to waste. "I thought you had gone already, I ran into the doctor and long story short, we need to cut your little finger open and collect some blood."

Gabriella looked at him like he was crazy. Why in the world would they need her blood?! She was okay with red stop signs. She was okay with the pretty red in rainbows. She was okay with any form of red which included blood. But _**not **_when it was her own.

People found Gabriella to be sometimes weird when it came to this. She first discovered she was afraid of her own blood when she was with Jenson the second time. She was ten years old and she was in a furnished guest room as she knew even in her ten year old mind that her mom and dad would be trying to find her which was what Jenson wanted for revenge.

Jenson told her himself that he was out to kill and she was just merely a countering chip and if she behaved maybe he wouldn't have to kill her. But she refused and pouted and screamed in the room she was staying in. She threw a huge tantrum and destroyed everything in sight, she messed up the bed, threw the pillows around so there were feathers everywhere, broke the ceiling fan by throwing little toys at it, and threw a baseball that Jenson gave her through the window breaking the glass.

That was when she first found out she couldn't stand to see the sight of her own blood. One of the little pieces of glass somehow landed in the room and she was too mad to realize that it was there and when she was pacing her room she stepped on it and cut her foot open. She ended up fainting and woke up a couple of hours later with her foot wrapped up and she got a new room.

"Wh-what?" Gabriella choked out as she looked over at the clock that was hanging on the wall.

_40 minutes._

"And who's with Troy?" Gabriella panicked. "Someone has to be with him to make sure that he's awake. Chad, we can't let him go to sleep or else he might not even have a chance and--"

"Hey." Chad said as he reached out his arm making Gabriella stop immediately, resting his calloused hand on her forearm. "Tay's with him and they're gonna be okay."

Gabriella nodded as their brown eyes stared at each other silently with many emotions running through the air, with the main one being fright.

Gabriella sighed, and then took a deep breath which was supposed to calm her, but time was ticking down.

_39 minutes._

"What are you doing here?" Gabriella asked in a voice that gave off how much she was faking being confident, how much she really isn't put together, how scared she really is.

Chad moistened his dry cracked lips with his tongue before he started talking and blocking out the mental image of his best friend laying weakly on the hospital cot, almost as if that was his death bed.

"Troy told me to follow you." Chad admitted as Gabriella studied him and he looked down at the ground almost as if he was ashamed that he betrayed Troy and told Gabriella the truth.

Gabriella this time now took her forearm away from Chad's hand and gripped his own arm tenderly to comfort him, letting him know that it was okay.

"It's okay." Gabriella said as thirty percent of her mind was busy trying to keep her voice strong, twenty percent was trying to keep her and Chad sane enough to help Troy, and fifty percent was trying to push Troy out of her head so she could think clearly.

"No." Chad shook his head almost violently as he ripped his arm out of her hand and put both of his hands in his afro and started pacing what seemed like an empty corridor as Gabriella figured everyone else was busy with Troy's antidote and fixing the computer problem Jenson started.

"No it's not. My best friend is laying on his death bed, Jenson's cracked into our computer records and is redirecting everything, and there's no time left!" Chad exclaimed as he finally stopped pacing and looked at Gabriella breathing unevenly as the stress and frustrations of the early morning events started catching up to everyone, and it was only 8:22 in the morning.

Gabriella sucked in a sharp intake of air as it felt like a bullet was piercing her throat. The thing she said next contradicted everything she was thinking, but he was Troy's best friend and she would do anything for Troy at this time, and that included calming his best friend down.

"We have time."

Chad's eyes looked up from the wall behind Gabriella's right shoulder to her eyes. He wasn't looking at her like she was crazy. He wasn't looking at her like she was despicable for lying to him. He didn't look at her like he hated her.

What his eyes showed was something Gabriella was surprised to see, but hid underneath her dark brown eyes that seemed to have settled down from moments before Chad caught up with her. What Chad was showing through his eyes was what some people would call belief.

He was so tired from his case that he was in the middle of with Taylor, the Jenson computer hacking, and now his best friend was supposed to die in…37 minutes, he was willing to believe anything. Gabriella was just the person he ended up coming to for hope.

* * *

_33 minutes._

Have you ever been so sick that you think you're ready to keel over and just lay six feet under? But you can't even close your eyes because that would require strength and muscles. So the next best thing you can do is try to just lay there flat on your back waiting for the pain to stop, but it doesn't because you can't get comfortable as you switch positions slowly and swear you just broke a bone as everything aches.

That's how Troy felt perfectly and then some. He couldn't get comfortable as when he got his legs in an easy position then his sides hurt and he wanted to flip over, but then if he laid on his sides then his legs weren't okay. Troy resorted to the only logical thing that made sense in his mind, laying on his back and let everything hurt so hopefully if he did this long enough then his body would go numb.

He stared up at the ceiling since there was nothing else to stare at as he was pretty sure that there wasn't anyone else in the room. He wanted to just close his eyes and drift off, let his body give up, but he didn't. It wasn't his time to go, he knew that, but yet that was the easier thing to do even though it was wrong.

Plus, he was staying awake for Brie. The girl that wouldn't leave his mind as he found that it was easier thinking about her then counting down the minutes until his body would just shut down voluntarily.

He heard the door open, but found that it hurt his neck to turn his head. But who else would be in his room if Brie and Chad were going to Jenson's and Taylor had left because right after Chad left the room the Doctor pulled her out to talk.

The damp washcloth was lifted off of his sweating forehead as he squinted to try to keep everything from looking like there were doubles. "Br--"

"Sh…" A girl's voice hushed softly like he was the kid and she was the mother. "Just relax." The soft mellow voice softly demanded and once again the cold damp washcloth was placed on his burning forehead.

His throat burned. It felt like acid was pouring down his throat and sticking to the inside esophagus tube. He had a huge lump in the base of his neck that he was pretty sure made of peanut butter, but then again he could be getting pretty close to the hallucination stage of his dying cycle.

"Th--thanks." His voice came out raspy and quiet. He turned his head expecting to see a nurse there, but saw…Gabriella. Gabriella was sitting in a chair which he guessed she brought in with her instead of kneeling on the ground the whole time and she gave him a small smile.

But wait, Gabriella was back?! Did she already go to Jenson's? If she had maybe more time passed then what he thought.

_31 minutes._

Gabriella Montez, his partner was back? Did she stop Jenson? Did she get the antidote to save his life? Could he actually recover from this and finish out his life like any normal CIA agent and be the best man he possible could be with Gabriella at his side? They could be equals. Equal partners, equal humans, and actually work together all the while going off of their relationship from the kiss they shared less than three hours ago.

It could all come true.

He wanted to tell her what he was feeling wasn't natural. Especially after only knowing her five days and two and a half of those five days he acted like a little bastard towards her. But he was definitely feeling something and maybe after this case he could've asked her out on a date even though it was risky, but he believed that she was strong enough to take care of herself, after all Gabriella did prove that to him so he owed her the confidence she put into him.

Troy tried to gain the upper hand as his vision fuzzed out on him for a moment and he turned onto his side so he was facing Gabriella and spoke through the pain.

"I didn't think you'd be back." Troy groaned out as a painful cough erupted from his mouth and a hand was placed on his shoulder that he wasn't laying on.

Small circles were being rubbed into his bare shoulder as his sweat probably soaked her fingers. "The Doctor just wanted to check up on something." Gabriella reassured him and he looked into her brown eyes.

They seemed different as he squinted to make it look like she only had two eyes and not four as he found that his vision was becoming even more blurry. But they did seem different, there was no denying it. They weren't as creamy and there were specks of hidden green in them. Maybe she wore contacts before?

But then a couple of precious seconds went by and her statement just made sense in his mind. The Doctor, but he thought she went after Jenson?

"B-but…Jenson?" Troy croaked out in a voice that wasn't familiar to him.

Gabriella shook her head no, "Don't worry about him. Everything will be okay"

* * *

_30 minutes._

Gabriella felt her legs walking at an increasingly fast pace as people who were traveling the very top corridor where all the labs were doing tests had to literally jump out of Chad's and hers way. There was nothing stopping them and Gabriella found that this was probably one of the hardest things she was doing.

She was putting trust in others to actually save another person's life. She almost always kept her trust to herself, she stopped believing in trusting people a while ago unless she knew the person for a while and they showed her that they could be trusted, like Taylor.

But now Gabriella had two options, she could either go after Jenson who she knew had the antidote for sure, or she could trust the doctors and technicians here that they absolutely know what they're doing and have actually worked their ass's off and can save Troy themselves.

Gabriella somehow let Chad convince her to stay saying that he knew the doctor personally as they went to the same college and she won't let them down, her name was Kelsi Neilson.

Gabriella put a lot of faith into Chad. But decided quickly within a maximum of three seconds that Chad was probably right since he was Troy's best friend and would only have Troy's best interest in mind.

"So you just need a little sample, right?" Gabriella asked nervously for Troy and herself as she took in the young technician in front of her that couldn't be older than herself.

Kelsi nodded as she wrote something down on her clipboard and flipped through pages in what looked to be a packet.

"Yeah, and we'll have it tested to make sure that you are AB positive, just like what your file says and then we'll have to take a bigger amount and we'll run it through our handy machine here." Kelsi motioned to the big machine behind her that worked as a filter almost. Or at least that's what it looked like to Gabriella. "And then that will filter your blood and separate all the things that make blood well…blood and we'll take the things that we need in your blood and add it to the antidote and then it should be ready." Kelsi said with a smile.

Gabriella nodded her head as she let what Kelsi explained to her sink in. She didn't exactly fully understand what made her blood so special, but she did know that AB positive was the least common blood type.

_28 minutes._

"You ready?" Kelsi asked as Chad had already informed her that Gabriella didn't do well with her own blood. Gabriella watched as if in a trance as Kelsi got an alcoholic pad ready to clean her finger with and the little needle clicker like the kind she has seen diabetics used to check their blood sugars with and her eyes widened.

But if this was for Troy then Gabriella would have to suck it up because she didn't have it nearly as bad as Troy did. She didn't even have it semi-bad as Troy did and right now she was willing to try anything.

"Do it fast."

* * *

_27 minutes._

They had been silent for three minutes, but to Troy it seemed like three years. This wasn't like the Brie he knew. When she was in the room with him before she was talking, trying to make light conversation with him to make sure that he was staying awake.

Troy looked down and saw that her hand that was resting on his shoulder was laying out in front of him on the side of the bed.

"How long?" Troy grunted as his hand reached out and connected their hands as his eyes darted up right when he saw her flinch and he did his best to tighten his grip so she didn't pull away.

"How um…how long what?" She cleared her throat and Troy found this really odd that she didn't already know what he was talking about. If he read her correctly which he was always good with when it came to people, he would've thought that she was counting down in her head.

Troy exhaled shakily. "How long do I have left."

She looked over at the clock, "27 minutes."

Troy felt a small tear well up in his eyes as he slowly blinked it away and tugged on her hand to come near his mouth and he pressed a kiss to the back of her palm. The kiss was dry, it was hard, it was skin breaking as it literally took Troy's breath away and he had to gasp for air after.

He heard her gasp as she pulled her hand away from him and he looked up at the sound of the chair scraping against the floor as she stood up.

_26 minutes._

"Tr-Troy I…" She stuttered obviously flustered.

"Brie?" Troy questioned.

"Oh God." Her voice dropped a little as she backed up with shock written across her face. "I have to go, uh…talk to the Doctor. I'll be back." She said in a hurry as she nearly ran out of the room.

Once Troy's door was closed she leaned against the wall with wide eyes. What had just happened in there? Was he really kissing her hand? Obviously he didn't know that she was herself, which only left one other person it could be. How did she not see it before? They were best friends!

"Tay!" Taylor's head snaps up and sees Chad jogging down the hall towards her.

"Hey." Taylor said with little enthusiasm. Troy didn't know that she was Taylor, and from what Chad said he didn't have a girlfriend so it only made since if he was thinking she was Gabriella. How the fuck did Gabriella and Troy become something more than partners?! Because she didn't think Troy was the type to just start kissing someone's hand without having done something with that person before. It would just be weird.

"How is he? Is he okay?" Chad asked with panic.

Taylor looked behind her shoulder and sighed as she saw the desperation in Chad's eyes and quickly wondered where Gabriella was now because it was slowly becoming obvious that Troy needed her now more than ever.

"He thought I was Gabi." Taylor said quietly as if it was a secret.

Chad gave her a weird look, "Why would he think you were her?"

Taylor shrugged, "I don't know, but I think there's something going on between the two. You promise you won't say anything?" Taylor asked.

"Promise."

"He started kissing my hand. Now I don't know what you and Troy are normally like as friends, but I know that when I see my friends I don't kiss their hands." Taylor said as she got a smile out of Chad.

"No. That definitely doesn't sound like Troy, but maybe it's just the poison that's in him." Chad said not even believing what he said.

Taylor gave him a skeptical look but couldn't call him on his lie as Gabriella was slowly approaching looking rather pale and clutching her arm self consciously.

_22 minutes._

"Gabi, are you okay?" Taylor asked as Gabriella leaned against the wall with a sickening look on her face.

Gabriella nodded, "Yeah, I just…this antidote better work or else we're screwed." Gabriella said it as all three of them were thinking it, just Tay and Chad didn't want to come out and say it.

"Gabs, you better get some orange juice or sugar in your system. You just gave blood." Chad said.

Taylor's eyes nearly bulged out of her eye sockets. "You gave blood?!"

Gabriella nodded, "No." She said stubbornly with tiredness in her voice as her eyes were blood shot and they almost matched Troy's now. She walked so she could see into the window and saw Troy laying on his side as his fingers kept bawling up the sheet in his fist and releasing it to keep himself awake. The only thing they didn't know was that he was only staying awake because of Gabriella.

"He um…he thought I was you." Taylor said quietly as both her and Chad were waiting to see what Gabriella's reaction was.

_21 minutes._

Gabriella just simply nodded her head as she found that her vision was going blurry and knew she probably needed something in her system like orange juice, but she also had to keep herself from thinking about the red liquid they drew from her arm. She hated her blood.

"That's understandable." She answered finally as her hand rested on the door handle. "Um…the antidote should be ready any minute now and then Kelsi's rushing it up here to inject it to Troy herself." Gabriella said as she wanted to fully believe that this was going to work. It just had to, she already had what they were going to do planned out.

First, Troy was going to be given the antidote, then they both were going to sleep for only a couple of hours, and then they would eat really quick, shower, and then head out once Troy was in the clear. Everything had to work out or else Jenson would win.

"I think um…" Gabriella looked intently at Troy through the window. "I think I'm gonna go in again."

"Okay, we'll go get you guys something to eat, you two are bound to be hungry." Taylor said as Chad agreed and followed her as Gabriella started walking into the too perfect white room.

_20 minutes._

"Brie?" Troy croaked as Gabriella felt tears well up in her eye as everything that seemed to pile up since meeting Chris again after years to Troy almost getting the antidote that they don't even know if it works came crashing down on her and smashing her petite body to the ground.

She bit her lip as she furiously wiped at her tears so she didn't alarm Troy that she was already getting emotionally attached. She sat down in the chair Taylor brought into the room and cupped his hand in her own two hands and kissed his bawled up fist.

"I'm here." Gabriella said in a whisper.

"Don't leave again." Troy pleaded as Gabriella shut her eyes and leaned her forehead against her hands that were cupping one of his. She was overly tired, overly emotional, overly anxious and she just couldn't help the tears that were coming to her eyes as all of this seemed to be getting to her.

Would the antidote work? What if it didn't? It would be her fault and she wouldn't be able to live with herself if that happened.

"I won't." Gabriella whispered as Troy didn't hear her, but didn't press the matter anymore simply because he didn't want to waste his energy anymore.

_18 minutes._

Gabriella felt dizzy. She felt the need to just lay down as she was hunched over looking down at the ground as silent anxious, frustrated tears ran down her face that she was hiding from Troy. She saw the band aid that was on her arm in the crevice where they drew the blood from.

_17 minutes._

She could feel it happening to her now even though it wasn't. She could imagine the needle being poked into her arm over and over again because they couldn't get a good vein. She could see the red on a stop sign, the red in a rainbow, and the red in stop and go lights traveling out of her body and into a tube.

It freaked her out and all of a sudden she didn't hear a beeping coming from Troy's heart monitor.

She snapped her head up and instantly saw a blur as she blinked her eyes to make sure that what she was hearing confirmed what she was now seeing.

Troy was flat lining and he still had _17 minutes._

Gabriella stood up quickly ready to spring into action to give Troy CPR, but she stumbled back a little dropping Troy's hand on the bed as she flailed out her arms in the air to balance herself, but it wasn't good enough.

The last thing Gabriella Montez saw was Troy's lifeless body going out of focus.

* * *

**Author's note--So what do you guys think? And I want to say thank you for the reviews. I really love what you guys think of this story and it makes me want to write it. So review please and thank you. I hope you guys are liking it.**


	12. Who Turned Off the Lights?

Taylor had this eerie feeling. It was the kind you get in movies where the suspenseful music was playing and the victim was hiding under the bed, the most common spot, and the killer was still searching the room even though you find it pretty obvious that the person can only hide under the bed, but you're still scared and hoping that they'll get out of the situation, but then the music starts to play and you know it's all over.

Well Taylor was feeling like that as her and Chad walked slowly away from Troy's room and down the hall as people rushed past them trying to get to every computer the CIA had and shut it down and wipe out all their records so Jenson couldn't get them even though Chad and Taylor both knew that he had them already so they just left their computers.

Taylor heard the door shut in the distance as she figured that was Troy's door shutting after Gabriella went inside. Taylor glanced at Chad out of the corner of her eye as she saw how worried he still seemed, his face was paler than usual, and he had bags under his eyes.

"Damn, I left my wallet downstairs." Chad cussed as Taylor looked at him.

"Don't worry, I have my…" She trails off as she looked for her black purse where she kept an extra knife in there along with her own wallet, money, id, and any normal things girls keep in their purses. "Purse." Taylor finished as she realized she must have left it in Troy's room.

"You do?" Chad asked in a non believing tone as he gave Taylor an amusing smile.

"Okay, so I did have it. It's in Troy's room, so I'll just go get it because it will be quicker than trying to get past people down to our floor." Taylor said, but stopped before she turned in her spot and looked at her partner of five days. "He's gonna be okay." She said softly as Chad's brown eyes looked up at her and they seemed a lot dimmer.

Chad nodded with his curls bouncing ever so slightly as it seemed even his hair was different with pain and sadness. "I hope so." Chad ducked his head away from Taylor so she couldn't see the worry in his eyes as he pretended to be interested in the drinks that the vendee-machine had to offer.

"Gabi's a great partner, she would never let anything happen to him." Taylor said softly as she saw Chad's head nod a little and it hurt her to see him so destroyed. She would hate to see how he would react if there was no cure at all. "I'll be right back."

Taylor sighed quietly as she turned around and started walking towards Troy's room. She knew something was going on with Gabriella and Troy. From what she saw of him the first couple of days at training he was acting like a jerk, but from all the stories Chad has told of the two of them he seemed like a pretty laid back cool guy, and she did run into Troy the previous night in the filing room as Gabriella had just gone home and Troy was picking up some other file for Gabriella's and his case.

Taylor felt something ram into her shoulder as she was caught off guard and her back was shoved into the wall due to the force. She turned her head to see a guy in all black with a belt on that held all his weapons out in the open as he was wearing black sunglasses and he didn't seem phased that he juts knocked into her.

Taylor narrowed her eyes on the guy that just ran into her as he seemed to be searching for something. "Watch it buddy!" Taylor snarled at him as she assumed he was another special agent being called in to take care of the huge Jenson problem.

The guy glanced once over his shoulder and Taylor couldn't help but glare at him even more as she didn't receive any apology for being knocked into the wall. The guy looked like he had some problem though with the way his body crept around as if afraid to startle someone even though he had no problem hitting Taylor, he looked almost jittery as there was some people talking at the other end of the hallway and he whipped his head in their direction as if afraid, and if Taylor could see his eyes then she would be able to see that they were cold and hard, almost as if he was trained to keep them that way.

Taylor rolled her eyes as she made her way to Troy's door and didn't even bother looking into the window as she let the bright white lights consume her vision and she blinked as she noticed that the lights seemed to be flickering as that gave into her suspicion that something big was about to happen.

She self consciously felt her side of her jacket the she was wearing for her belt underneath that held her gun as she heard the door shut behind her from the lack of no one holding it open.

But everything next seemed to happen in slow motion as Taylor's eyes drifted downwards to Troy's machine that didn't have a constant heartbeat. Taylor held back a gasp as her eye sight took in the overturned chair and the body next to that.

Gabriella's hair was fanned out on the floor, her eyes were closed, and her face paler than what Chad's was. Taylor's training kicked in as she pushed the thought out of her head that Gabriella was her best friend and old partner. She had to get help, and make Troy start to breath as she glanced down at Gabriella and saw that her chest was moving up and down and there was no blood spots, so Gabriella should be okay.

Taylor turned around as she blinked back tears and looked both ways down the halls as she saw a couple of nurses and Doctor's down the hall and Chad down the other way still by the vendee machines talking to who looked liked Jason and Zeke.

"HELP!" Taylor called out as she received weird glances from Doctors. "TROY BOLTON IS FLAT-LINING, WE NEED A DOCTOR!" Taylor called out as she felt her knees wobble at the sight in front of her. She turned around letting the door close swiftly behind her. She didn't see Jason, Zeke, and Chad's looks of worry and fright, she didn't see Kelsi who was talking to the nurses stop mid sentence, but most of all she didn't see the man who was leaning against the wall casually dressed in another all black suit, pretending to blend in with a cool stature.

Taylor stepped quickly over Gabriella's body as she kneeled down on the other side of the white cot that was holding the ill Troy. "Come on Troy," Taylor urged as she straightened out his face from the side to laying straight as the annoying sound of his heart monitor ran through her brain.

She felt a tear slide down her face as multiple people tried to come into the room all at once. First Kelsi emerged as a small gasp came from her mouth seeing Gabriella's and Troy's body, and right after three nurses came rushing with what Taylor could remember was electric shock paddles to start his heart up again , and then Chad, Jason, and Zeke behind them.

Taylor was immediately pushed aside by the nurses and over next to Gabriella's unconscious body who must have been moved out of the way as she was being hoisted up by Chad and Jason with one arm around each of their shoulders and necks.

"Get them out of here!" Kelsi demanded in a panicked voice as she was busy injecting Troy with a clear liquid and the nurses were busy putting gel on Troy's chest at where the paddles were going to go. Kelsi tossed the needle aside as they was no time in throwing it away in the canister and she was busy reading the heart monitor he was connected to as she was shouting out medical terms Taylor had very little clue too.

The one nurse that was doing the least work and who moved Gabriella out of the way and into Jason's and Chad's arms took steps closer to them, practically pushing them out.

"Take her to room nine and have a Doctor get there as soon as possible, but it seems to me that she has just fainted, but just to make sure get a Doctor's opinion." The nurse looked at the scared and nervous faces on the young adults. "Please, it'll be better if you leave."

Taylor was the first to nod as she came out of shock at what was happening. Just then they heard Kelsi yell 'Clear' and connected the paddles to Troy's chest as his body lurched off the table before falling lifelessly onto it again.

"We have to guys." Taylor said with little strictness in her voice, "Can you guys manage with…" She indicated to the knocked out Gabriella as Chad and Jason barely nodded with their eyes glued to the lifeless Troy who was being treated as there was still no sign of heart beat, but the antidote should work, shouldn't it? Or were they too late? He still had 15 minutes!

"Let's go." Taylor said a little bit more stronger as Zeke was the closest one to the door and walked out first, followed by Chad and Jason with Gabriella, and then Taylor as she gave one last glance over her shoulder and saw them getting ready to connect the paddles to Troy's chest again.

* * *

Jenson was a very controlling man. He might not look bad, he might not look very strong, and he might not look like a killer, but he was.

He was despicable to people.

He was strong mentally, emotionally, and physically.

He was a killer, but never liked to get his hands dirty with risky killings so he always sent his followers to do it if the kill wasn't worth that much anyways.

The one person that he did have a soft spot for was the one and only Gabriella Montez. He had known her for a while now, ever since his dad kidnapped her at age five. Jenson was 16 and training to take over the family killing business just in case his father, Jack Jenson died.

Unfortunately for Jack, Gabriella's father Carlos killed him three years later which left Matt Jenson to take over at just 19 years old. The mother was long ago forgotten as she stayed low and finally was rid free of her husband.

When Gabriella was taken again from her baby sitters house, Jenson was 21. Gabriella recognized him from being that teenage boy who was constantly getting appraises from his father the five years ago, but she also recognized him to be that boy who would just talk to her for the three days that she was with him, but that all changed the two weeks she was with him again.

He was meaner, crueler, stricter, but somehow always had these moments as if he was debating with himself whether or not to go through with what he was planning, but no matter how mad or how crazy Gabriella would make him by her sarcastic comments and refusals of coming out of the room he never hurt her.

Then the third kidnapping happened in a hostage situation at her high school, she was 15, he was 26, Gabriella grew up into a teenager that couldn't give a damn in the world. She was total opposites of her parents, but between Gabriella and her mom, her mom was the same way when she was Gabriella's age. Growing up with two parents that were CIA agents sucked, and it never got better.

Jenson didn't view Gabriella to be the little girl who was innocent anymore at that time. He gave her a choice over the three weeks he held her captive, either stay with him and be like a Queen as he could give her anything, or die after her parents. Gabriella picked the later as Jenson noticed that she was still sarcastic and he would have to teach her some manners.

But now, she was 25 years old, and he was 36. He didn't know why he had such a soft spot for her. Maybe because over the first three days of knowing the petrified five year old and being put in charge of watching her on his father's commands he grew somewhat attached to her. He practically had been watching her grow up and he liked to believe he was the reason why she became a CIA agent.

But all that was going to change, he was going to finish this little obsession once and for all whether that meant making Gabriella Montez suffer, or taking her with him as his partner. He had no means of hurting Holly, he had no reason too, he just needed someone to lure Gabriella into the case, and he did it. After this was over he was going to release her, because he was Jenson. He always had a reason, just nobody knew what his real plans were.

His henchmen all thought that the Vice President did something, hell, even Troy and Gabriella did. No one knew that he was dong this just for Gabriella, but they would find out eventually.

Just then the walkie-talkie Jenson was holding buzzed as he waited for someone to speak on the other line. "We're in."

Jenson smiled his crooked smile as he turned in his chair and looked at the twenty different TV's in front of him that all were connected to the security cameras in the CIA. He smiled at one in particular, it was of a brunette woman laying on a cot with her best friend next to her and a fuming Danforth pacing the room.

"Good."

"Should we attack Bolton?" The raspy voice asked as Jenson then felt anger double over in his body. He had seen. He had seen Bolton and Gabriella together a half an hour ago and how they had kissed before too!

Jenson glared at the TV that showed Troy and his heart monitor that was giving a slow pulse. They had found an antidote, but he was expecting this. This was only a decoy until the real plans started.

"Not yet." Jenson commanded with a sickly sweet smile on his face as he could already taste the sweet flavor of victory.

* * *

"This is fucking nuts!" Chad swore as the doctor left the room and it was now just Taylor, him, and the out cold Gabriella as Jason and Zeke had to go down to the offices again to try and get their computers to work because apparently now since they shut them all down including Taylor's and Chad's and every other agent that didn't do it, they wouldn't turn on and everything was going weird and now a lot of people were freaking out.

Taylor sighed as she ran her hand through her hair. "Why don't you sit down. You're gonna make yourself more nervous." Taylor said softly as Chad couldn't stand the thought of sitting down and not doing something.

"NO!" Chad said roughly as he continued to pace. "I'm far past nervous Taylor!" Taylor winced when he used her whole name. At least Gabriella was going to be okay, it was exactly what the nurse said, she fainted and when she woke up she would just have to drink something as a lot of people faint when they give blood so it was no shocker.

It had also been another ten minutes since they were ushered out of Troy's room and they weren't allowed to go back in there unless he actually passed away or he was up and gonna be okay.

"This is fucked up and it's all Jenson's fault!" Chad's voice was low and laced with uncontrollable anger as he reached the little table that held a lamp on it and kicked it so it slammed into the thin wall and made a small dent as white paint chips fell to the floor.

"Chad!" Taylor hissed as emotions were running high. At least if Gabriella was going to wake up, she might as well do it soon to the sound of Chad and her fighting. "Knock it off. Everything will be…fine." Taylor said lamely as Chad scoffed and stopped pacing as he had his back to Taylor.

"How can you be so sure?! Huh Taylor?!" He snapped as he spun on his heel to look at her and she shrunk back into her seat. She usually was never outspoken and scared, but today was an exception. "Because my best friend is hanging on for dear life, Jenson is doing God only knows what with the fucking computers, and I have no idea what the hell I'm gonna do if Troy's gone!" Chad shouted as Taylor held back tears. If it was Gabriella instead of Troy then she would be a mess too.

"Right now, nothing good can happen." Chad hissed as Taylor held his gaze with fire and ice meeting.

She had to stay strong though, for Chad. Even if he wasn't asking for it verbally, he needed someone to be there for him and she would be that person if things got even worst. But she had to keep his spirits high, and if that meant yelling at him, then she would.

Taylor stood up abruptly, knocking the chair back into the wall and hearing the loud thud as Chad eyed her carefully. "You stupid innocent little boy." Taylor hissed with venom, trying to make it clear to Chad that things will end up okay, trying to keep the light at the end of the tunnel, that was the only way they were going to win this thing, if they kept at least somewhat positive.

Chad backed away as Taylor took advancing steps. His eyes were wide at Taylor's outburst. "Stop thinking about the negatives and 'what ifs'." Taylor demanded as her fists shook into little balls at her side. "And start thinking of ways that we can overcome this. When Gabi wakes up and the records and computers are good again, we'll give our case that we're working on over to other agents and then Troy will be better by then and all four of us will work on the Jenson case." Taylor shot at Chad as he nodded his head slowly. "Do I make myself clear?" Taylor asked as Chad opened his mouth to speak.

"Y-yes." He finally answered as he sat down and put his head in his hands.

Taylor sighed as she tried to push the guilt that was working it's way into her system out.

"Chad…" Taylor said a lot more softer now as she sat next to him and hesitantly put her hand on his back. "Everything is going to be okay, it has to be."

There was a pause as Chad's head picked up and he looked at Taylor, "I know." He whispered.

To lighten the mood Taylor looked once more at Gabriella to see that she was still unconscious. She then looked at Chad who was staring a head of himself. "I think something's going on with Gabi and Troy, what do you think?" Taylor blurted out not being able to keep it inside of her. After all she was so used to gossiping with Gabriella and since they weren't partners anymore and this gossip is about Gabriella, Taylor didn't find it appropriate to gossip with her about this, not to mention she isn't even awake.

Chad was caught off guard, he had never been in this situation before. On the verge of losing his best friend then all of a sudden talking about Troy's love life.

"Well um…" Did he really want to talk about this. If something was going on between Gabriella and Troy then they really shouldn't talk about that, the only exception of talking about it was in Troy's and his girl talk which probably wouldn't happen for a while now. "I don't know." He admitted as he eyed the girl on the cot suspiciously. If Troy and her were together then he would be happy for him.

"Has Troy ever dated before?" Taylor asked and Chad didn't know if he should be giving this information out about Troy, but who would Taylor really tell? And it's not like Troy would hurt him if he found out because he would probably be too weak once he woke up, or it would be the opposite. Kelsi wasn't too sure if he would come back as normal right away or it would take a couple of hours or days. Chad was hoping for the first.

"Well um…I've known him for our whole lives, and I can honestly say yes." Chad said bluntly which made Taylor giggle. "Now I'm being serious, he has but kind of stopped after high school and once we became serious about our careers."

Taylor nodded, "So he resorts to the one night stands?" Chad looked at her with a questioning glance, how did she know? As if reading his mind Taylor started speaking, "Gabi is kind of like that. Although she did have a boyfriend before we got transferred, but then again, he was the reason why Gabi was transferred."

Chad found this kind of fun talking about other people, "Who was the guy?"

"The chief's son." Taylor said as Chad's face broke out into amusement as he tried to hold in his laughter, but couldn't help it once Taylor started laughing giving him permission too, he didn't want to offend them by laughing. He had no idea how these girl talks went.

"But on that note, do you think there's something going on between the two?" Taylor asked one the laughter had died down.

Chad stared down at the ground, did he? "I…maybe... Troy has a lot of trust issues, something to do with a story about how he dated this plastic Barbie girl named Sharpay Evens in high school, and they went out for like two and a half years, but what no one else knew was that Sharpay was banging one of Troy's and mine closest friends, Zeke Baylor." Chad explained as it kind of felt good to talk about this with someone because he had never actually told this story before and it's not like Troy wanted to talk about it.

"Oh my God. How long?" Taylor asked.

"Well they went out sophomore year and all the way until the middle of senior year, but Zeke and Sharpay were together for a year." Chad said as he scoffed at the ground. "Troy was heartbroken convinced Sharpay was the one for him, he had told her that he loved her and it turned out Sharpay was only using Troy for popular status."

"Wow, what did Zeke do?" Taylor asked.

"He didn't care because Sharpay had him convinced that she loved him back so I'm thinking if he's stupid enough to ruin his friendship with Troy then he deserves Sharpay, and after senior year we haven't seen them since. The last time I checked Zeke owned a restaurant in New York, and Sharpay was an actress on Broadway."

"Gabi and Troy must have more in common than what we thought." Taylor commented.

"She was cheated on by a girl named Sharpay in high school?" Chad asked.

"No, but it's complicated." Taylor said just as she was saved from ducking out of telling Chad the whole Gabriella story as they both heard a shuffle come from the cot. "Gabi?" Taylor asked excitedly as she rushed over to her bed and kneeled down as Chad smiled at the two best friends. He actually felt more relaxed now that Taylor had taken his mind off of Troy's state for five minutes.

Gabriella sat up slowly as her face was still pale. She didn't even get out two words before Taylor thrust a bottle of orange juice at her. "Here, drink this."

Gabriella looked around before her face got even more white. Remembering what had made her cause to faint in the first place. Troy was poisoned, and she was with him when he…Gabriella felt her stomach turn as she blinked back tears. "How's Troy? Where is he? Is he okay? The antidote?" Gabriella choked out as Taylor and Chad both gave her sympathetic smiles, Gabriella and Troy had something going on between them for sure now.

"Gabi, you have to drink this. We can't have you fainting anymore." Taylor said softly as Gabriella nodded shortly after and took it.

It felt like acid going down her throat. She didn't want to eat or drink anything, her nerves were getting to her which made her stomach hurt. After she had drank half of the orange juice she sat back against the wall at the head of the cot.

"How long was I out for?" Gabriella asked shakily as she couldn't stop her mind from Troy and the unspoken answers she was looking for.

"At least thirty minutes. Maybe a little less." Chad answered as he rubbed his temples.

Gabriella stared wide eyed ahead of her. If she was out that long that meant Troy would either be alive right now or…dead. She had to know.

"How is--" Her voice cracked a little as her last memory of him came back into her mind of his heart monitor going flat. "Is he…um…okay?" Gabriella asked quietly as she bit down a cry.

"We don't know." Taylor said. "Kelsi gave him the antidote and they won't let us see him unless he's fully awake or he's um…gone."

"That's bull shit!" Gabriella exclaimed as she stood from the cot, feeling a little dizzy as she stood up too fast. She looked down at her half drank orange juice and threw it perfectly into the garbage can. Chad and Taylor looked at her quizzically. "If it's one thing about hospitals that I know about, it's if you want something then you go get it."

Gabriella charged out of the room as Chad and Taylor looked at each other with confusion. "What hospitals has she been too?"

Taylor sighed as she stood up, "Come on, let's go make sure she doesn't get kicked out." Taylor joked even though she was halfway serious.

* * *

Gabriella didn't know if it was emotional attachment, physical attachment, or just the last memory she had of Troy that made her push this hard to see him, but they even had his window blocked off and it scared Gabriella that the Doctors were doing this.

"Ah, Miss Montez, I'm glad to see that you're better now." The young, grouchy looking nurse said as Gabriella figured Kelsi had to get back to the lab so that's why she wasn't up here right now.

Gabriella forced a smile on her face as she decided to play nice to get into the room. She heard Taylor and Chad come up behind her as the nurse was blocking their way into Troy's room. "Thank you, can we um…can we see him?" Gabriella asked indicating that they wanted to see Troy.

The Nurse shook her head, "I'm afraid you can't right now." The nurse, Becca, looked at them impatiently as Gabriella didn't move from her spot from standing in front of her.

"Can I ask why?" Gabriella asked sharply as she was letting her irritation get the better of her. She just wanted to see him for a minute, she didn't even have to talk to him.

Becca rolled her eyes slightly, "The Doctor said that he is recovering."

Gabriella's face lit up as she looked back at Chad and Taylor who shared the same look she had. He was recovering so that must have meant he was cured and he was most importantly alive?! Gabriella really wanted to see him now. Maybe even more than before she knew that he was living.

"Just for a minute, I just want to see him and I won't even talk." Gabriella desperately asked as Becca crossed her arms and glared at Gabriella with her drooping boring eyes, and wrinkled face making her look even older than what she was.

"No means no and I suggest you three leave before I have to call security." Becca warned as Gabriella gave a sarcastic laugh.

Chad and Taylor shared a worried look as Gabriella said, "Honey, I am security. So move before I have to use force." Gabriella warned darkly as Chad had never heard her like this before and Taylor had only heard her use this tone when she was deathly serious.

"Gabi, maybe we should--"

"No Tay, you guys want to see Troy then why can't we? Give me one good God damn reason why we can't?!" Gabriella demanded of the nurse as the older doctor approached them smiling warmly at them.

"What seems to be the problem here Becca?" The doctor asked with a warm smile.

"These three don't seem to want to follow the rules." Becca pointed out sending them a glare.

"Please Doc, we just want to see Troy for a minute and we promise not to disturb him if he's sleeping." Chad joined in stepping forward surprising Gabriella, but then why wouldn't Chad want to see Troy so Gabriella gave him a small smile which he returned.

The Doctor had a warm laugh, "I hardly think he's sleeping. Mr. Bolton has been up for the last twenty minutes demanding he be let out because he feels 'fine', we just had to run a few more blood tests before we should release him." The old white haired man explained as Gabriella felt her heart leap.

"You mean he's okay?" Gabriella heard Taylor's unsure voice echo through her ears as her best friend stepped forward now to and the nurse just rolled her eyes.

"Yes." The Doctor gave a good throaty chuckle. "He's as good as brand new. You would have never known that his heart gave out less than an hour ago, I think it's the antidote. We're running tests on that too just to make sure nothing else will happen, but if all goes good then Mr. Bolton should be released by late tonight or tomorrow morning."

Gabriella smiled as she looked at the time and saw that it was just going on 8:30 a.m. These were very eventful first five days. She should be tired, but maybe being knocked out for thirty minutes helped her catch up on a very little amount of sleep.

"Well then if he's okay then can we see him?" Gabriella heard Chad ask.

The nurse looked at the Doctor as if warning him silently like that was against the rules. The Doctor shrugged, "I see no problem with that, as long as Mr. Bolton is okay with it then by all means, go on in." The Doctor stepped aside along with Becca who was grumbling things under her breath.

* * *

"It's about fucking time." Troy's strong voice filled the room once the door closed behind the three people.

Gabriella was the first one in as she took in Troy's appearance. His color was back, there was no sweat, his voice was strong, he even looked stronger if that was possible as he was sat with his back against the wall with a red t-shirt on and the black athletic shorts still on. He looked good and Gabriella couldn't help but smile.

"So when can I leave because seriously I feel great. I don't even feel like I almost died and now we can go kick Jenson's ass because believe me, I feel up to it. Where's my gun? Where's my id? Do you have it Brie?" Troy didn't even realize he used his nickname for Gabriella in front of others as he kept rambling at one hundred miles an hour. "How's it going Chad? Did you finish your case? What's with everyone rushing around here saying the electronics are taking over? And how did Jenson get into our system? Don't we have barriers?"

"Whoa." Chad said out loud causing Troy to stop talking. "What are you on?" He asked in amusement as Troy shrugged with an innocent smile on his face.

"I told you, I fell good, great even."

The three laughed as Troy looked at them weirdly. "Seriously man, don't start rambling again." Chad warned as Troy blushed a little and shrugged.

"I'm just…bored. So what happened after my heart gave out?" Troy asked nonchalantly. "Kelsi told me it was Tay who found me?" Troy asked as they all heard Troy call her by her nickname around the office. Taylor had never seen him so happy before due to the fact that she had only known him five days and barely seen him. If Gabriella could like him, then she could definitely like him as a friend.

The three though were quiet as Troy gave them a stern look. "What's wrong? I'm not stupid." He pointed out as the three other people rolled their eyes at his eagerness. He reminded them of a little kid getting to pick out a new toy at the store.

"You're not the only one who needed a hospital." Chad mumbled as he knew that if Troy and Gabriella had something between each other then Troy would care almost too much for her and be very concerned because that was just the guy he was.

"What?" Troy gasped as he looked at the three and saw Gabriella was the only one not meeting his gaze. "Brie, what happened?"

Gabriella sighed as she looked up, "Nothing really, just had to give blood and let's just say that I faint at the sight of it, but the weird thing is I can handle others." She said as if it was nothing because it really was nothing compared to him or really anything else for that matter.

She had to give blood? What for? He looked her over and saw the bandage on her left arm right in the crease of her forearm and upper arm. "Why?" Troy asked.

"I don't know, it's just something that I've always been afraid of. I can handle other people's blood though." Gabriella explained the total opposite of what Troy was asking and he then knew she was avoiding something.

"No Brie, why did you have to give blood?"

"Well apparently we're the same blood type Bolton." Gabriella said with a smile and an unusual chipper voice to make this seem not like a huge deal that Troy was thinking of. "And the antidote called for something in the blood and we couldn't take yours since you were poisoned and I was here so I offered up my arm." Gabriella said with a smile. "You can send me a fruit basket tomorrow." Gabriella joked.

"We're just glad to have you back man." Chad stepped in as he and Taylor came from out behind Gabriella to change the subject.

Troy then remembered something. He remembered how Gabriella had freaked out before. How he had held her hand and she had freaked out because he kissed her on the hand. But all of a sudden now that he was right in the mind, he got the feeling it wasn't Gabriella he was talking to the whole time.

There was a silence as no one knew what to say. What do you say when your best friend, co-worker, and partner just almost died but now was feeling better than ever?

"Tay, your hand is soft." Troy said as he smirked to lighten the mood and she blushed as Chad and Gabriella both let out chuckles.

* * *

"Walker." Jenson barked gruffly as he watched the TV's in front of him. Although he couldn't hear what was going on, he could see and that was good enough. He had a feeling he was going to have trouble with the four of them, and he already planned on taking Bolton down, but he could work Danforth and McKessie in there too.

"Yes sir." A squeaky voice answered through the walkie-talkie.

"How many troops do we have in?" Jenson asked with a smirk as he saw various men of his dressed in their black suits in the hallways of the CIA on all floors.

"About 25 sir." The young voice answered.

"Shoot away." Jenson's eyes lit up as all the TV screens flashed a black as the lights went off in the CIA, not one light being spared. After a minute the backup generator kicked in, but the lights in the hallways were only lit.

Jenson traced Gabriella's figure on the one TV screen of the hospital room, it was dark in that room, but you could still make out the people's movements. He was going to see how important Troy Bolton was to Gabriella, and if Jenson was right like he usually was, Troy Bolton could be the end of both of his and Gabriella's life.

* * *

"Who turned off the lights?" Chad asked just as a series of gun shots went off outside in the end of the hallway as they were positioned right in the middle.

Gabriella backed up in surprise until her back hit the wall next to Troy who was still sitting on the cot. Gabriella and Taylor gasped as they heard people yelling outside as the hallways lights flickered on and off and this was Taylor's sign that something bad was gonna happen. Usually in the movie when something like this happened, the music stopped and the victim lost.

Troy reached up and laced Gabriella's and his hand together as they watched a dark shadow slowly approaching outside of the door...

* * *

**Author's note--So this chapter is long, almost double than what i normally do, but i felt like if i would have split it then the chapter you would've been recieving today probably would've just been chad and Taylor and then Gabriella waking up, and I just felt like since I got so many reviews for last chapter, you deserved to see Troy up and okay along with Gabriella. I also felt like I had to add in some Jenson scenes to make this story make a little more sense, and I know this chapter isn't that exciting for me personally at least, next one has some major Troyella and if I get more reviews, the better i'll feel to write it. So tell me what you think of this one? And one more thing, i normally won't write a lot of chad and Taylor scenes, so i just don't want to get some people's hopes up that this is major Chaylor when i don't even know if I'm gonna progress their relationship with each other even.--Thanks.**


	13. Hot

_The room was furnished. There was a little kids bed, the walls were painted a baby blue, the window had a balcony, but of course there were bars on the door so the hostage couldn't get away, and there was a couple of little kids toys scattered around on the beige carpet._

_Matt Jenson slouched down in his chair with a 'humph'. He was bored, there was no doubt about this, he would do anything just to get out of that room and away from her so he didn't have to play baby sitter. _

_He heard voices outside the door and all he could do was glare. Usually when your father wanted you to take over the family business, it's a gardening business, or an office job with computers and accounting, or Matt would even settle for his father working as a Doctor. Not some killing assassin who got pleasure out of watching people suffer._

_Matt wanted to go to college, he wanted his mother around again, he wanted to not be stuck in this room with a five year old kid. He was fucking 16 for crying out loud, he would even be okay with being around his father instead of babysitting his father's problems._

_Matt heard whistling as he looked over at the five year old dark brown haired girl and saw her in the corner of the room wearing a pink t-shirt and dark blue jeans playing cards by herself. He couldn't wrap his mind around the fact that his father actually had a problem with this little girl, after all she was only five. How bad could she be? _

"_Matt." A gruff voice called out as the little girl whipped her head up and in her brown chocolate eyes you couldn't even tell if she was scared or not. Why should she, they were treating her like a queen before it was time to kill her. And even if Matt was supposed to watch, he still didn't want to be in the room with her right now. He didn't want to have a chance to bond with her or else his father would never let him live it down._

"_Yes father?" He answered as he could only imagine his father standing impatiently, waiting for him to turn around._

"_Come with me." He said shortly as Matt sighed and the little girl looked up at his 16 year old self, but he ripped his eyes away from her because just looking at her reminded him of the way that she was going to die that afternoon._

_Matt followed his dad out of the room and ran a hand through his hair. His father's eye were beady and black and it almost made Matt sick that his father could be so cruel, but he couldn't help loving him because after all, he was his father. Matt only wanted to make him proud._

_His father had on his famous creepy smirk, and Matt knew that he was thinking about killing. Death. Blood._

"_As you know, when I'm gone, you're gonna be in charge. And I expect nothing more and nothing less from you to follow in my foot steps." His dad demanded in his sharp, strict tone. "This girl is meant to die, don't think otherwise." _

_Matt felt his head nod. What did she ever do to him? She was five years old, she can't be that big of a threat._

"_Her mom is gonna pay for sneaking around in places she shouldn't be and this will teach her. This girl right now, is the enemy and I guarantee you, she's not gonna live to see nightfall." _

_His dad's tone was evil, pure evil and Matt almost shook hearing him talk like this. But why should he expect anything differently, this was his dad that they were talking about. This was their family he was talking about, and his whole family was nuts with the killings._

_Matt almost felt sorry for the girl, he knew that she would never get to see her parents again, she would never get to see her friends again, and the last thing she would get to see was the first thing he saw of his life…his dad. And just that thought sent shivers up his spine._

"_You follow my plans for her and the next murder I'll let you out on the playing field." His dad clapped his back in a congratulating manner as Matt hid his disgust behind a fake smile._

"_Sounds good." Matt said before his dad nodded at him and walked off to leave Matt alone to face the five year old._

_Matt sighed regretfully before going into the room again where the same little girl was now sitting on top of the bed and combing the doll's hair. She was still whistling or at least trying to as she was missing a tooth and Matt couldn't help but feel a little sympathy towards her._

_He slowly walked into the room and stopped at the end of the bed as the little girl looked up at him with a sparkle in her eyes. "Was that mom and dad?" Her little excited voice echoed inside Matt's head._

_He looked down at the ground instantly killing himself on the inside wondering if it was wrong lying to her the day before that it was her parents that kept calling him out of the room. He looked up at the girl as she smiled widely at him, almost as if silently encouraging him to go on._

"…_Yeah. They say they want you to keep playing." He saw the girl put the doll's hairbrush down on the bed again as he sat down on the bed too, keeping a good distance from her as he leaned his back against the wall and his feet straightened so they were hanging off the bed a little bit._

"_Do you like blue eyes?" The little girl asked him and his heart dropped as he looked to the side of him, no longer feeling annoyed at the fact he got the most idiotic job there in this murder plan, he was thankful that his dad gave this to him. Or else the little girl probably wouldn't be so happy right now._

_He saw her squint her eyes at the doll as she clicked her tongue and he knew she was raised by her two parents to act older than what she was. It was hard growing up with parents in this field of work, because there's no way you could escape._

"_Nah." He answered as the little girl looked up at him. "I've always liked brown eyes Ella."_

_The little girl nodded eagerly at him. "Me too, I hate blue eyes."_

_It was then Matt didn't want to kill the little girl._

* * *

Troy reached up and laced Gabriella's and his hand together as they watched a dark shadow slowly approaching outside of the door. Gabriella's heart was pounding so fast as Chad quickly pulled out his gun and Gabriella ripped her hand away from Troy's to grab hers in her belt holder under her blouse.

Gabriella saw out of the corner of her eyes that Taylor also had her gun out and all three of them were pointing it at the door. The figure was getting closer and in one quick moment, the door thrashed open and what looked to be a thirty year old man, who was bald with tattoos covering his visible arms standing in the doorway.

He had a gun pointing at them as he was dressed in all black and Gabriella swore she recognized him from somewhere as she looked at him closer. He was tall, muscular looking, and no facial hair as he smiled sickly at her.

"Put your weapon down!" Chad commanded.

The guy didn't move as he looked like he wasn't even listening to Chad. He just stared at Gabriella with his gun pointing at her.

"Put the gun down!" Taylor's voice came off as being strong and Gabriella followed where the gun was pointed, right at her heart, her hands gripped her gun even tighter so her knuckles turned white.

Gabriella heard Troy shift behind her, but she wasn't paying that close attention as she was just focusing on the guy no more than five feet away with a gun pointed at her heart.

"Montez, we meet again." The guy's voice rang out as she could no longer hear anyone else on their floor of the building and her face drained of color just thinking of what this guy did to make the whole floor evacuate.

"I wonder how long it takes to die if a bullet is lodged into your most important organ?" He took a step closer and before Gabriella knew what was happening she saw tan skin in front of her and slowly processed that Troy was standing in front of her, blocking her from harms way.

"Just stop pointing the gun at her!" His voice shook as the man gave a good throaty chuckle.

"I'm not here to kill her…I'm here to kill you and take her back to headquarters." Before the guy could pull the trigger Chad hit the man's arm as the gun flew across the room and a gunshot went off causing the bald man to fall to the ground, clutching at his leg.

Gabriella stepped out from behind Troy and saw that a red liquid was coming through the guy's pants and Gabriella saw Taylor's arm shaking from the aftershock. Chad shut the door making sure no one else was on their floor.

She knew that this man looked familiar, but she couldn't remember where. She stepped forward. "Everyone okay?" She heard Chad's voice ask with shock as they all looked at the guy in front of them. It wasn't new to each of them, seeing someone shot, it was just a little shocking sometimes since you knew the person you shot had a big chance of not making it.

"Yeah…" Gabriella said distantly as she stared down at the guy. "Who the hell sent you?" Gabriella hissed as she kneeled down and grabbed the man by his collar. He lifted his arm that wasn't grasping his thigh and tried to swing at her. Gabriella was about to lean back so he missed, but another hand grabbed the man by the wrist and she saw Troy gripping it tightly.

He offered her a smile as the man in front of them groaned. "I'm gonna ask you one more time, and if you don't answer let's just say you don't want to know what will happen." Gabriella threatened.

"I think you know already." The man groaned as Gabriella narrowed her eyes.

"Jenson." Gabriella breathed out as the man smirked at her. He was in no position to be getting joy out of this. Gabriella gripped his neck with her hand as he let out a growl of pain. "Why?" She demanded.

"Like I would tell you." Gabriella frowned. They didn't have time for this.

Gabriella looked behind her and saw that Chad was trying to get his cell phone to work, but it looked like there was no cell connection. Taylor was going through her purse and Gabriella smirked. It would be a lie if Gabriella said Tay and her weren't put into this position before to get information.

"Tay, knife!" Gabriella called as three seconds later Taylor tossed her a little bladed knife. Gabriella turned her head back around as Troy looked down at her, almost as if he was interested in what she would do.

"There's no cell connection, I can't get a hold of anyone." Chad called out as Gabriella and Troy both let out a little huff of air.

Gabriella brought the knife up to the guy's neck. "You have ten fingers, it would be a shame if you lost one." Gabriella waited a second as the guy's eyes went wide when she pressed the knife closer to his neck. "Why did Jenson send you?"

The guy didn't say anything still as Gabriella glared at him. She pressed the knife even more into his neck and a small amount of blood trickled out and the guy winced. "Listen!" Troy demanded. "We're partners, and let's just say she's the nicer one. Give me your gun Brie." Troy softly demanded as Gabriella handed it over.

Gabriella saw Troy stand up as he was still shirtless. Gabriella couldn't help her eyes as they ran over his six pack, the way his arms bulged out and his two pecs that were slightly pink.

"We can work our way up, body part by body part until you want to talk." Troy pointed the gun at his foot as the man was now shaking.

"Last chance." Gabriella taunted as the man opened his mouth to speak.

"Okay, okay, okay!" He exclaimed as Gabriella and Troy both looked at each other, sharing a smile. "Jenson wants Montez. And he won't stop until he gets her. Happy?" His voice was gruff as Gabriella's eyes went wide as shock took over her body. She saw the man's hand reach into his jacket, it was like it was in slow motion as her mind couldn't wrap around the fact that Jenson had his men break into the CIA just because of her.

It would be her fault if anyone got hurt. It would be on her conscious if anyone died and it was all because of Jenson wanting her for whatever reason she was unknown too.

She fell back from her crouching position and her eyes went even more wide as the man revealed a knife and blood started leaking out of his chest. His eyes closed, his body limp, the knife stuck in place from where he stabbed himself.

"Fuck." Chad muttered and Taylor gasped from behind them.

"Brie?" Troy asked as he offered her his hand to pull her up from the ground. Gabriella stared at the man who thought he had to kill himself to keep from giving up anymore information, but it was too late. They knew what Jenson was sending his men in for now, and Gabriella now knew what she had to do. She had to give herself up. It was only right if that meant helping everyone else.

"Gabi, come on." Gabriella felt Taylor's hand on her upper arm, trying to pull her up.

"Yeah…" Gabriella trialed off as she ripped her eyes away from the man. "So what's the game plan?" She stayed on the ground though as she knew that her legs wouldn't support her. They felt like jell-o as the shock sunk in about what she was going to do for the little girl and the CIA.

"First, Bolton here needs to put on a shirt." Chad tried to make the situation lighter, but you really couldn't as he chucked a red curled up shirt Troy's way that he found on the edge of the cot and Troy started putting it on.

"There's more." Taylor's voice shook as she walked up to the man and flipped open his jacket to reveal pockets. She opened the first one which held his wallet. "There was a guy who bumped into me that was dressed exactly like this. God, I should've known." Taylor said as she started digging through and found his license.

"It wasn't your fault Tay." Chad said as he stepped forward and squinted down at the body. "He's dead." He confirmed.

"His name was Travis and--" Taylor was cut off as you could hear gun shots from the floors below them.

"And there's a hell of a lot more in here." Troy finished.

Gabriella took a deep breath just at the door barged open again and all four grabbed the closest thing to them, but came face to face with Jason and Zeke. "Hold up!" Jason exclaimed as Chad sighed and put his gun down.

"What the hell is happening out there?"

Jason and Zeke looked at each other as they entered the room and saw the dead body of Travis and shut the door behind themselves quickly. Gabriella looked at them and saw that Jason had a cut above his eye that seemed to stop bleeding, and Zeke's jacket was ripped in the upper arm with dry blood around it, and it was all because of her.

"We're being attacked. There's at least ten intruders shooting on our floor, and we're getting all our field agents to cover the rest of the floors." Zeke explained.

"Do you have a rough number of how many our actually in here?" Troy asked.

"Well, no. We have Scott and Balting covering the top three floors, we're supposed to be covering the middle sections, but it seems as if their all spread out." Jason said quickly as he self consciously looked behind his shoulder and out the small window to see nothing.

"Chad and Taylor, Benning wants you two to cover the floors where we hold the interrogations. We need every agent out there." Zeke instructed.

"And what about us?" Troy asked.

"You two have to get out of here. Troy you were just nearly killed, Benning wants you out of here along with Gabi since she won't have a partner." Before Troy or Gabriella could protest Jason and Zeke left.

"Gabi, don't think about what Jenson wants, just get out of here." Taylor instructed softly as Gabriella felt herself nod, even though that was a lie. She had to if she was gonna help stop this. Chad and Troy did their guy handshake and Chad and Taylor were gone before Gabriella knew it.

Troy shut the door behind them and gave it one good kick. Gabriella could tell that he was mad. Why shouldn't he? He wanted to be out there fighting, helping and instead he was stuck with the instructions of getting out safely and not to look back until it was safe.

"I can't believe this!" He vents as Gabriella whips her eyes away from the red face, pacing, fuming Troy to the door as she swore she heard footsteps. She grips her gun that was laying down next to her now as she looks intently at the door, trying to see if she heard right.

But even if there were people coming down the hall checking the rooms, Gabriella knew they wouldn't be able to take them since Troy didn't even have a weapon. His gun was in his pants which would probably be in the doctor's office who treated Troy and that was down the hall. But she didn't hear anything, did she?

"I think I've earned my fucking right to go out and fight!" Troy continued his rant as Gabriella swore she heard more footsteps, but they weren't consistent, it was like they were stopping at each room and checking and if they were doing that then it would just be a matter of time before they reached the room she was in with Troy. "When the Chief gets back from his assignment, I'm gonna give him a piece of mind, or better yet I'll write him a letter!" Troy hissed with venom as Gabriella's head spun.

Gabriella heard them again and this time she wasn't imagining as she leapt up from the ground making Troy stop in his tracks and look at her curiously. If her senses were right, which they usually were, they sounded like three or maybe even four different guys in the hallway. "We have to get out of here. There's people on the floor."

Troy's face instantly went from furious red to a pale white and Gabriella gets a flashback of him hours earlier laying in the cot on his deathbed. "Shit." Troy cursed as he looked around frantically.

"I'll go out there and you stay here." She suggested as Troy's eyes nearly bugged out of his face. Gabriella went to open the door when she felt Troy's arms encircle her waist as he yanks her harshly away from the door and nearly throws her as she lands on the cot in a heap.

"Bolton." Gabriella hissed as she stood up and he blocked the door and if they weren't in the situation Gabriella would admit to herself that he looked pretty hot standing there like he was some knight in shining armor.

"Are you fucking crazy?!" Troy hissed in a whisper as Gabriella stood fully now and fixed her blouse that was ruffled up since Troy threw her across the room.

"No, but you are!" Gabriella hissed back in another whisper. "You don't just throw people! Plus there's no other solution, we can't take them with just one gun." Gabriella countered before Troy could even open his mouth.

"Well then give me the gun and I'll go out there." Gabriella froze in her spot as the footsteps were becoming nearer, but then stopped as they heard a door open and if Gabriella had to guess, then she would say that they were only three rooms away.

"No." Gabriella shook her head stubbornly as Troy shook his outstretched hand more to emphasize that he would do it. "I'm not gonna let you go out there by yourself."

Troy sighed as he looked around the room as if there was an answer. Gabriella saw his face frozen as she followed his eye line and her stomach dropped, there was no way.

"A vent?!" She screeched in a high pitched whisper.

Troy nodded as he advanced Gabriella. "I'm gonna get you out of here and that includes keeping you safe from Jenson."

Gabriella looked into his eyes as she found that she couldn't look away. His blue eyes were mesmerizing. Troy reached out his hand, waiting for her to take as Gabriella felt her heart beat speed up.

His skin was tan, his hair was still damp from the sweat earlier, the red shirt brought out his chiseled muscles underneath, and Gabriella couldn't help but wonder if he wanted to kiss her the way that she wanted to kiss him.

"Brie, we don't have a choice. I promise I won't let anything happen to you." Troy practical begged as Gabriella still looked hesitant.

"I know." She swallowed loudly. "It's just not everyday you get to climb through the vent system at work." She tried to make it sound light hearted in a joking manner, but didn't do a good job as she eyed the vent they were supposed to go through.

"I promise, nothing will happen to you." Troy's eyes were intense and for a moment you could only hear their breathing. Gabriella nodded a little unsurely, she wanted to trust him, but it was so hard. It wasn't because he was an untrustworthy guy, it was just because of her past, and she was scared for once.

"Please Brie." He pleaded softly.

"I believe you." Gabriella whispered and Troy had a small smile come to his face.

He took another step closer as she gave him her hand. "I'm gonna boost you up and your gonna have to take the vent covering off." Troy explained as Gabriella used Troy to lean on as she stepped up on the cot and Troy followed.

He dropped her hand as he gripped her lower waist sturdily. She could feel his well defined chest against her back. His low heavy breathing in her ear. His hands touching her in a soothing way.

"Ready, one, two, three…" Troy lifted her as Gabriella could now fully reach the vent and started ripping at it. It was just big enough to fit Troy's shoulders through. It wasn't that bad actually as Gabriella found that the vent was really shaky.

She pulled at it one more time before it came clamoring off and she lightly tossed it down onto the cot. "Ready?" Troy asked.

"Uh…yeah." Gabriella said as she felt Troy's arms lift her a little more and her hands gripped the sides of the vent so she could slide in. After a couple of quick seconds Gabriella was safely in the vent.

"Do you need any he--" Gabriella stopped talking as she saw Troy's hands grip the vent where her hands were seconds before. She would turn around and let him hold onto her hand, but there was no way that there was enough space.

But Troy didn't need help as his upper body came into view and Gabriella slid down the vent a little more so he could bring his feet up.

Troy offered Gabriella a small smile as she looked back at him again to see that he was safely in the vent too. She felt butterflies in her stomach as he smiled at her and squeezed her ankle to let her know everything was okay now, or at least he hoped everything was okay now.

"You okay?" He asked with concern.

"Yeah, where too?" Gabriella asked as she had no idea where he was going, she still had other plans. Jenson wasn't going to stop until he got her where he wanted her, and she wouldn't let anyone else get hurt because of her.

"I say, we stop and get my gun, and then head the hell out of here." He must have seen her hesitation again as he continued to keep his eyes on her. "I promise you that I won't let anything happen."

Gabriella looked away so he wouldn't see the plan forming in her mind somehow. "To the Doctor's office then." Gabriella announced as she started army crawling down the narrow passage of the vent system.

After a minute you could hear Troy's voice, "This is kind of hot."

* * *

**Author's note--So I feel like this chapter isn't any good, which is probably true. I was having a harder time writing this one than the other chapters, but I think it's because nothing else really happened in this one. And about my last author's note, I know I said there would be major Troyella, but I fibbed on accident, and next chapter will be major Troyella. I was gonna write a way different chapter, but I felt like that would be too rushed, and this one I still feel like it's too rushed, but oh well. You guys got this one and I didn't feel like erasing it and starting over again. So review and please tell me what you think.**


	14. Comfort

--**9:50 a.m.--**

She needed someone to care for her.

Troy's shirt fell to the ground, carelessly followed by her black blouse.

He needed someone to take his worries away.

Troy's glazed over orbs locked into glossy chocolate ones as he wanted to make sure that this was what she wanted…

Her bra landed on top of the chair.

They both needed someone they could be with, and they just happened to be there for each other.

Their mouths connected with an urgency. Hands roaming over their exposed chests. His fingers playing eagerly with her nipples until they became hardened peaks. Her hands dancing over his chest, making sure she didn't miss anything.

She wasn't looking for romance she told herself as his teeth sunk deeper into her smooth skin and she suppressed a moan.

Gabi knew it was a lie.

He didn't know what this would do to their relationship, but pushed it to the back of his mind.

He drew back from her neck as their eyes locked again. His body keeping her against the wall. Panting like dogs, their mouths slightly open, eyes full of feelings as Gabriella's hand reached up and gripped the back of his head and plunged her mouth against his.

They both knew one thing however…there was no going back.

--**Earlier, 9:15 a.m.--**

They laid in a heap. Bodies mixed. Legs crossed over one another, weaving around and locking as if they were a puzzle that was waiting to be taken apart and put together again. Hands trying to grip something, to pull themselves up so they wouldn't have to relive the awkward situation of falling from a vent that was eight feet up on the ceiling.

"That is the last time I ever go into a vent with you." Gabriella hissed quietly as she pulled her arm that was under Troy's chest back to her own body.

Troy rubbed his head that just happened to be resting on Gabriella's hip bone off to the side as he groaned. "Yeah, and I'm just dying to put my name on the list to go back in there and nearly break my neck." Troy said sarcastically as he slowly sat up and started untangling their legs together, trying to ignore the feeling of being that close to Gabriella.

He remembered their kiss earlier that day when he thought he was going to die. He remembered that being the real her and not Taylor who's hands were soft. He remembered how her eyes looked at him and how she believed that he would be okay, even though he was pretty sure that he was going to die. But that kiss, that kiss gave him some reassurance, but he wouldn't admit that to anyone. He would feel too vulnerable.

It was then when his legs were definitely returned to his body and not tangled in Gabriella's warm body that looked really good from behind in the vent that he sat up fully and looked around the room of the doctor's office.

"This um…this doesn't look like how a doctor's office should look." Troy heard Gabriella's timid voice speak out as he nodded in shock.

The two chairs the visitors sit in across from the doctor's side of the desk were flipped over on the ground, the many filing cabinets were knocked over, the drawers strewn across the floor with files and papers everywhere, the computer was knocked over and broken, as the pictures on the walls were broken, and the office sort of reminded Troy of a feeding ground for wild animals. Everything was ruined.

"At least we know they checked this room already." Troy said as he looked at the door that lead out into the hallway and quickly locked it.

He stood with his back against the door as Gabriella stood up and took in the room herself. Her curls framing her face, her arm had a cut on it that didn't look that bad since it hardly broke any skin, but still, it was his idea to go through a vent and she had to fall through first and it was his fault.

"Is your arm okay?" He asked as Gabriella all of a sudden looked down on her other arm before actually looking at the cut itself realizing she now had a small scratch.

"Oh, yeah. I didn't even feel that." She laughed nervously as she continued to look at the room. "These guys sure did some damage."

He scratched the back of his neck. "I'm guessing my gun's not in here." He looked around the room one more time and saw no signs of his regular pants and shirt instead of wearing athletic shorts and a shirt, and gun. "We're gonna just have to stay here."

Gabriella swiveled around in her spot as she stared at him like he was crazy. "What if they come back?" Gabriella hissed as she self consciously looked over her shoulder at the door.

Troy winced as Gabriella jumped a little as the gun shots from the floors below them went off. "We have two options, you give me your gun and I'll lead the way out of here, or we can stay put."

Gabriella's eyes were roaming back and forth from the door to Troy as she opened her mouth to speak, but closed it. Troy offered her a smile as she finally let her eyes settle on him.

"Letting you lead the way isn't even an option. I'm not gonna put you in any more danger." It wasn't until she spoke those words and a blush showed on her upper cheeks that she realized what kind of meanings her words actually meant.

His heart sped up as he smiled at her. She really did care about him, but he could tell that it was on accident that she actually admitted it out loud as she shuffled nervously and walked over to the door to peer out of the window that was that kind that was kind of clouded so you could only see the figure of the person outside the door instead of all their details.

"Well then…" Troy broke the silence as Gabriella whipped around and got out of the vision of the window just incase the guys came back. "I guess we're staying here. Better get yourself cozy Montez, because this could take a while." Troy tried to lighten the mood as Gabriella just nodded.

He sat down on the edge of the desk and looked at Gabriella as she still looked like she was in shock, but who wouldn't be? A lot happened that day including Troy almost dying, both of them were running on lack of sleep as it was all of a sudden catching up to Troy and he blinked his eyes a couple of times so they wouldn't droop shut, and they were now trapped in the CIA with a bunch of Jenson's minions trying to kill or capture them. Not to mention they only had one gun.

But Gabriella being still in shock seemed weird to Troy. She seemed so put together, so laid back at times that this was new to him. Something was different about her and he wanted to know what.

She took a step back until her back his the wall and she slid down it. Her small soft delicate hands clasped together to keep each other from shaking as her eyes looked like she was a deer caught in head lights.

Her brown orbs were glazed over, her knees bent, pulled up to her chest as she rested her clasped hands over the knee caps and just stared in front of her as if letting everything process.

"You okay Brie?" Troy called out in an inside voice just incase the guys were still on their floor, but he hadn't heard anything for a while now except the occasion gun shot coming from the distance.

"…Yeah. Just thinking." Her curls fell forward as her head was bowed a little. Her fingers tapped nervously against her knee caps, through her dark blue jeans. Gabriella let out a forced laugh. "Is it hot in here or is it just me?"

Troy had so many things he could say to that. That is if the time was appropriate, which he didn't even know if things could ever be appropriate around them now. When do you have the time to make sexual jokes with your partner as you're supposed to be saving someone's life?

But somehow he pushed a thought through his head. Him and Gabriella outside of work, going out to dinner. Talking about other things besides their pasts, and keeping things light between the two of them instead of getting themselves in life threatening situations. He'd take her back to his flat which he only really let the guys see as the last time he was with a woman he went to her house.

They'd somehow make it into his bedroom and he'd run his hands all over her sides and curves. She's be under him panting his name, moaning at his touch.

"Troy?" Gabriella's voice broke him out of his thoughts.

"Wh--what?" He stuttered as he scratched the back of his neck.

"Are you hot or am I just being paranoid?" Gabriella lifted her hand and waved it in front of her face in a fanning motion.

Troy looked around the room and spotted over by the door the control for the air conditioner connected to the building. "Yeah…kind of." Troy got off the desk and walked over to the control and saw that it was set at 65 degrees, but in reality it felt like it was more 80 or 90.

"I um…" Troy started turning the knob not really knowing what the hell he was doing. "I don't think it's working."

"God!" Gabriella exclaimed as she threw her head back so it collided with the wall. Troy now all of a sudden since Gabriella pointed it out realized how hot it actually did feel in the room, but Troy was guessing that it was like this all over the building too as the summer sun soaked through. "Jenson thought of everything. He's gonna heat us all to death."

"Hey, hey, hey." Troy soothed as he walked over towards Gabriella and she only just looked up at him. He sighed as he sat down next to her, their forearms gently brushing as he was all the way seated with his knees slightly bent upwards just like Gabriella's.

"The worst thing that could possible happen is we'll get a little burnt." He joked as Gabriella narrowed her eyes on him slight. "Sorry." He said once he realized Gabriella wasn't in a joking manner.

* * *

The air was thick. Gabriella's body felt like it was on fire. She glanced sideways at Troy for a quick second and he didn't look any better than she felt.

Only one thought was running through Gabriella's head, this was her fault. She was given all these chances to prevent this from happening. If she would've shot at Jenson earlier than morning in the warehouse, maybe she could've slowed him down. Or when he gave her a choice between saving Troy or meeting him an hour later to bring back Molly, she could've still gone since Troy was saved either way since Kelsi's antidote worked.

She felt the sweat on her arms, back, neck, and she couldn't stand it. It was getting to be around the high nineties and unbearable. They had been in the room for twenty minutes so far and she had never felt so weak and useless just sitting there, but she knew the procedure. Now that Troy and her knew what they were after, Troy was trained to protect the person or object in danger, and that just happened to be Gabriella at the time.

No words were spoken. Both deep in thought. Gabriella wiped the sweat from her forehead as she ceased the tapping of her fingers against her clad covered jeans.

"This is my fault, isn't it?" She felt guilty. She felt horrible. She felt responsible, now all she needed was someone to confirm it, she thought that would make her feel better if someone would just blame her. Maybe if she got Troy to realize it was her fault he would actually just let her go out there and all this could be over.

"What?" He asked in disbelief. "No, it's not. Don't even think like that." He scolded her as Gabriella shook her head stubbornly. That wasn't the answer she was looking for.

"I know that's what you're thinking." Gabriella persisted as Troy shifted his body off to the side so he was looking at her more. Gabriella turned her head, there was sweat running down the side of his face, his hair was matted as Gabriella was sure her's would be too but, ten minutes ago she put her hair in a high pony tail.

"No." He declared in a believing tone, but Gabriella shook her head believing otherwise. She still didn't believe him. He grasped her hands out of no where and held them tighter than normal as if just holding her would make her believe him. "It's Jenson's and nobody else's."

His eyes pierced through her. Her body tensed up at just the look of him. Heat was radiating off of his body. His breathing harder than normal. Sweaty hands clasping onto sweaty hands, not daring to let go. He nodded his head up and down ever so slowly, trying to see if Gabriella believed him.

She did nothing. She couldn't wrap her mind around the fact that Troy wasn't blaming her for this. How could he not? He almost died because of her and now Jenson wanted him dead.

"You not blaming me is all to easy." Gabriella persisted. Things just weren't right and she didn't like that. "You know--"

"You're gonna give yourself a head ache if you keep talking like that." Troy cut in with a sly smile that if Gabriella was standing she was sure that her knees would almost buckle. "Brie, you have to relax. We're gonna be--" Just then a long serious of gun shots rang out through the building, all coming from separate directions.

Gabriella kept her eyes on Troy as he trailed off. "You were saying?"

"Okay." Troy finally finished as his hands gripped her hands tighter. "We're gonna be okay."

Gabriella didn't want to disagree with Troy anymore. It was too hot to do that, too hard to do that, and too tiring. "Come on." Troy stood up and pulled Gabriella up without any effort and Gabriella looked at him like he was crazy.

"Troy what are--" Gabriella was cut off.

"We need some air." Troy finally let go of Gabriella's hands as he gripped her shoulders lightly and nudged her forward across the room, over the chairs, around the pictures, and over to the window.

"Troy--" Gabriella was cut off again as she was just watching Troy yank open the window that lead down about twenty stories.

"I don't know why we didn't think of this before." Troy mumbled as he placed Gabriella in front of him and he molded his chest into her from behind.

"Just breathe." Troy took in a deep breath and exhaled as Gabriella couldn't hide the smile that came onto her face, just trying to imagine Troy behind her following his own advice.

He took in another intake of air as he tried to calm her down, hoping she was either taking his advice or at least was smiling.

Gabriella let out a small giggle at how Troy sounded. Troy was about to say something when Gabriella beat him to it, "You sound like you're concentrating very hard."

"I'm not gonna disagree." Was his reply.

Gabriella shut her eyes, hoping all this would go away. Her hands rested on the window sill. The outside air drifting softly over her, helping her stay calm just a little bit more.

"When I was little, my parents had this list." Gabriella spoke softly as Troy rested his chin on her shoulder and his hands cradled her. "It was a 'to do' list before they pass away. They finished four of the five things on there, and ever since their deaths I've kept my own list."

"Makes sense." Troy murmured close to her ear so she felt his breath on her face. "Tell me more."

"I've almost done everything on my list, I only have two more things to do, but it's not that important, especially if this is the last assignment I'm on."

"Has anyone ever told you that you're so negative?" Troy asked softly as Gabriella finally opened her eyes and peered them over the edge to see how high up they really were. "What was on your list?"

Gabriella breathed out a single breath. "To sky dive, I did that a couple of missions ago. Then there was go to Italy for their Italian food. I loved it over there." Gabriella smiled just remembering her and Taylor's vacation time spent over in Italy with the hot guys who didn't even compare to Troy. "Third thing on my list was to go back to my home city. I did that five days ago."

Gabriella felt Troy's chin send vibes down her shoulder into her arm from chuckling. She didn't know if he moved his hands from laying on top of her hands to her stomach on purpose, but she didn't mind right not.

"And what two things didn't you finish?"

Gabriella turned her head a little to the side, towards Troy. "Take down Jenson and find love."

Before Gabriella could even take back what personal information she shared with Troy, he had his lips against hers.

Gabriella didn't think. She succumbed to Troy's actions right away as her hands wound around his neck, pulling him closer to her. His mouth ripped away at hers in an animalistic way.

She drew his tongue in, sucking at his bottom lip, her hands running wildly up and down his back. His body pressing into hers, making sure she didn't get away this time.

**--9:55 a.m.**--

She didn't question it.

His warm lips sucked harshly at her throat. Making sure to leave a mark that she would be proud to wear.

He needed to reassure her that he would be there for her.

Gabriella let out a moan as his hands slid all over her body, finally coming up and gripping the small of her back and her dark curls, directing her mouth towards his.

Their bodies were reacting to each other. Making them tremble to the touch.

She needed to move her body.

Gabriella viciously shoved him aside and pounced on him, making her body hold him against the wall as their mouths dueled.

Sparks flew as Gabriella's fingers stroked down Troy's sweaty chest. Her mouth following, leaving open mouth butterfly kisses as a trail.

"Brie…" Troy breathed out as her hands teased the tightness in his shorts before bringing her body up and connecting their mouths again.

He wanted her.

Troy ripped his mouth away from Gabriella as he flipped them once again so he was holding her against the wall. His hands gliding down her back and chest, his mouth kissing sloppily along her mouth, down her neck to her collar bone.

Her little moans filled his thoughts as his hands slowly unbuttoned her jeans, he pulled his head back before he unzipped them to make sure that this was okay, even though they both knew that no matter what they did they would never forget what was happening now.

Gabriella gave a little nod as he finalized the unzipping and pushed them down her hips as she gracefully kicked them off.

He took in her appearance of her breasts heaving up and down, the olive gleaming skin, little baby curls up to the sides of her face that were too short to be pulled into a pony tail, and her hips that held little dainty black lace panties.

She welcomed him.

"Staring doesn't get you anywhere Bolton." Gabriella whispered sensually as she went to step forward to bring him closer, but he slammed his hands against the wall to cage her in. His breathing hot against her face as his lips were centimeters away.

With foreheads touching…noses rubbing…eyes connected, Troy spoke huskily, "Don't move."

He wanted to taste her.

Troy leaned forward only a little more to connect their lips in a heated lust. His hands moved from the wall to her petite body structure and played teasingly with the hem of her panties.

He grazed his teeth down her neck, past his mark on her body, down the center of her breasts, and all the way to her navel.

Troy's mouth pushed harder against her lower abdomen making Gabriella moan out. Her fingers threaded through his hair, enticing him to just dive in. A wet tongue dipped into her belly button making her buck her hips in response.

Troy's hands held Gabriella's hips in place, almost burning a handprint in her sides. Teeth clung to material as eyes locked on each other. Each with their own intense stare, as if daring the other one to see who would back down first, but both knew that wasn't going to happen.

He slowly guided her panties down her thighs before Gabriella decided he was going too slow and shook out of them quickly.

He promised her he was going to keep her safe.

Troy kissed around her most sensitive part of her body, ignoring Gabriella's whimpers of pleasure. His tongue skillfully licked around her lower half, making sure Gabriella responded to everything he did.

Her hands clung to his shoulders, anticipating what was to come. Forcing the thought of Troy being a one day stand out of her mind because did she really want that?

Troy heard Gabriella's breath hitch in her throat as he lifted one of her legs over his shoulder and ran his tongue over her folds.

He wasn't going to disappoint her.

Hearing her moans for him drove him further. Flicking her clit once wasn't enough as he needed to hear the Latino say his name again. Troy's hands pressed harder into Gabriella's hips as his thumbs ran in circles.

"Troy…" Gabriella moaned as he poked his tongue inside of her, his erection becoming almost too painful just hearing Gabriella's erotic breathing.

She threw her head back as his tongue entered her fully. Her knees almost buckling as she tried to control her breathing. She loved the feeling Troy was creating as she could almost see stars.

"God Troy…I'm gonna--" It came out as a gasp. Juices spilled out and into Troy's waiting mouth. Gabriella feeling like if Troy wasn't holding her in place she would've fallen in the spot.

He enjoyed her.

Troy pressed kisses around her inner thighs, sucking slightly as Gabriella shuttered one last time. Him smirking against her leg as a hand slowly trailed down her propped up leg and caressed it softly.

"You…" Troy pressed his lips to her. "Taste…" He brought his head up while he slowly lowered her leg. "So…" He stood fully up, bringing his hands up to interlace with her hands, a visible erection showing. "Good."

She was going to take care of his 'little problem'.

Gabriella's hands pulled back from Troy's and teasingly played with the inside hem of his athletic shorts.

Troy groaned as Gabriella's hand slid all the way in and ran across his clad covered penis. "Don't tease Brie…it's not nice." He pressed himself closer to her as their lips met.

She shook her head, she was in charge. "Stand still." Gabriella commanded and in one swift movement both his shorts and boxers were on the ground and around his feet.

Her tongue ran dangerously close to his shaft as her hands trailed down his six pack. Troy's hands gripped her hair, ripping her pony tail, letting her wild curls cascade freely to her shoulders.

Gabriella mockingly pressed a kiss to the tip of his head making Troy shudder from her touch.

She wanted to cause him the pleasure he caused her.

The Latino ran her tongue slowly up and down, her eyes looking up at him, waiting for him to look at her. When blue met brown it was like a new level was reached between the two.

Her mouth slowly enclosed around Troy, bobbing her head up and down as Troy's breathing increased. His hands tugging slightly at the back of her head, her fingers playing with his balls.

"Brie…" Troy's quavering voice covered the distant gun shots in the background. The feeling of Gabriella's mouth on him turned him on even more as he knew he couldn't last any longer.

One of Troy's hands pulled back from Gabriella's hair and slammed itself against the wall as he ejaculated in her mouth.

They longed to be one.

"I want you…" Gabriella stopped talking as Troy picked up her hand and kissed her palm. "Now." She breathed out.

Troy picked Gabriella up under her ass as she got the message and wrapped her legs around him. He carried her over to the desk as he leaned over and viciously sent the papers the were scattered on there to fall to the floor.

Gabriella giggled at Troy's actions, but her laughs soon converted into groans of pleasure once her back hit the oak desktop and Troy lined himself with her opening.

Troy climbed his way up her, kissing her with his tongue all the way from her navel to her lips. "Do you trust me?" He breathed out as he moved a little and only entered his tip.

Gabriella's breathing picked up again as her hands clutched the side of the desk.

Neither one of them was ready to trust.

Gabriella slowly moved her head to the side and then back again. "…No." Her voice was rasped as Troy crashed his lips to hers and thrust fully into her.

Creating a rhythm Gabriella quickly picked up on. Hands moving wildly, remembering what the other one felt like, building up the orgasms.

Neither one knew that there was a security camera in that room.

* * *

**Author's note- So this was my present to you guys, and I have no idea if it's good, but I personally like it. Now the reason why I'm giving you this so early into the week is because I don't know if I'll be able to update on Saturday like I usual do so I decided to be nice and update on Monday instead, so now you guys be nice and review for me. Thanks...**


	15. Plan

Clothes were strewn across the room. Sweaty bodies tangled together. The adrenaline dying down as the need for each other was pushed to the back of their minds and panic took over.

"I can't believe we just did that!" Gabriella screeched as she rolled out of Tory's arms and off the table ungracefully while landing on the floor with a hard 'thud'.

Gabriella looked around quickly for her clothes as Troy just laid on the desk with his eyes closed, a cheeky smile, and a chuckle leaving his mouth.

Gabriella stared at him like he was crazy as she found her bra on a turned over chair and fastened it on.

"God, we're gonna go to hell." Her voice held panic, nerves, but not regret as she spotted her blouse and Troy's shirt nearby the fallen chair.

Troy chuckled again as Gabriella quickly walked over to him and whipped him with his shirt. "What the hell?!" He exclaimed as he opened one eye and then two as he scanned over her appearance and smirked triumphantly as she saw his marks around her thighs.

Gabriella knew where he was looking and sent him a hard glare and hit him on the arm again with her hand.

"You are such a perv!" Gabriella scanned the room for her pants and underwear which she figured would be near each other, but she only found Troy's boxers, shorts and her pants.

Troy sat up with his shirt covering his lower torso as he caught the two articles of clothing thrown at him, but didn't bother to move to put them on.

"A perv you had sex with." he added as she rolled her eyes and let out a huff.

Gabriella tried to use her pants as some kind of shield. Her eyes scanned the room frantically for her small black panties that shouldn't be that hard to find.

"We should've never done this." Gabriella moved around the room while trying to multitask: trying to block Troy's idiotic eyes off of her lower exposed half, finding her underwear, and combing her hair with her free fingers as it looked like she had sex hair.

"It was a mis--" Gabriella was cut off.

"Don't say that." Troy snapped as he stood up in all his glory and nearly leapt on her. Pinning her against the wall, grabbing her small wrists and holding them against the wall. He brought his face closer and whispered in her ear, "Don't ever say it was a mistake." His voice was cool, it was threatening, it was demanding, and it enticed Gabriella even more.

He pulled back, but only slightly as his eyes scanned over her face slowly. Her brown orbs glazed over, her high cheek bones pink, mouth slightly open as her breathing increased some. Her bottom lip trembled a bit, delicately lowering his head some he connected their lips and riskily let go of her hands.

Gabriella's hands had a mind of their own, or at least that is what it seemed as they flung themselves upward and gripped the back of Troy's head tightly and his upper back, digging her nails into his skin.

His lower body pressing itself into her. His tongue hastily ran across her bottom lip, wanting her to open up.

Her hands moved to his exposed chest while accepting his warm, pleasing tongue. In one movement she gathered all the strength she had in her arms and heaved him off of her.

Troy's mouth ripped away from Gabriella's as he caught his footing after stumbling back two feet.

He smirked at her as he swooped down and grabbed something off the floor, having it be invisible to Gabriella.

She wiped at her mouth with the back of her hand as if disgusted by that when they both knew that whether they liked it or not there was sexual tension between them.

"I hate you!" She declared as Troy could feel the cool lace beneath his fingers. They both knew that wasn't true and Gabriella was just trying to fight the feelings for him.

"That's not what you were saying when I was above you." He retorted as she let out a frustrated groan.

"Where the hell is my underwear?!" She exclaimed as she looked over the room furiously again, anywhere but Troy who had his intense eyes poking through her.

He let out a small chuckle that she wasn't supposed to hear. She turned and starred at him making sure that the desk was in between them.

"What?" The brunette's voice was demanding as the blinking red lights in the hallway didn't distract the two.

Troy brought up his hand slowly, the thin black material threading his fingers as if the look Gabriella was sending him before wasn't enough to make him back-off, then this one was.

"Here." Troy said gently as he held out the black panties. Gabriella huffed out air as she yanked them from his hand and was getting really sick of Troy's victorious smirk that he was sending her.

The two silently finished getting dressed, avoiding each other's eyes as they would occasionally accidentally look at each other and quickly look away so the other one wouldn't see.

Troy didn't mean for this to happen. That was a lie, he did mean for it to happen, just not in an enclosed doctor's office as murderers were right below and above them. He knew it probably went against so many office, partners, and work rules, but he wouldn't take it back. He didn't regret anything that happened between the both of them.

He turned around and looked at the fully clothed Gabriella again and noticed that she now had her hair up again in a pony tail as a blinking red light was going off in the background again. He hadn't heard any gun shots lately and looked at Gabriella curiously.

"…What?" She fidgeted uncomfortably under his gaze as her hands played with each other.

He offered her a small smile hoping that would be enough for now to reassure her that they could work through this awkward patch in their relationship, or at least whatever relationship they had, and it probably didn't help that he was making all those smart-ass comments before, but he couldn't help it. He had every right to defend what they just did, he just chose to take the less subtle route.

"I don't hear gun shots." He saw her nod her head slowly as if comprehending what he just said. She lifted her head up higher as if that would help her hear better to see if she detected anything other than what he already said.

He stared at her. A few loose baby curls framing her face, her blouse wrinkled and slightly ruffled, her jeans fitting her perfect curves that were minutes ago underneath him, moving against himself. Troy shook his head as he didn't need to get hard again, but he couldn't help but stare now as it seemed this whole other level of closeness came over them.

"GABI?" Someone's voice cried out as Troy kept his eyes on Gabriella as she rushed past him, noticing for a second how their arms brushed up against each other, but she put the feeling to the back of her mind. She looked out the door the best she could as she turned to look at him.

"I think that's Taylor." The Latino's voice held hope as he was anxious too to get out of this room. But not for the same reasons as Gabriella. For her she wanted to leave, try to forget what they just did, to push the problems they just created and awkward tension between the two to the back of her mind, but he just wanted to get out so they could take out Jenson and then move on to the issues they just created and hopefully get some down time on their jobs.

"Bolton, get your ass out here. We have a mandatory meeting!" Chad's voice boomed as Troy then nodded his head and rolled his eyes at his best friend's words.

Troy didn't know what was to happen now as probably most of their electric equipment was ruined along with thousands, maybe a million dollars worth of damage done, surely they might have a back up plan if something like this were to happen, but their Chief wasn't even there. He was on his own assignment overseas, but his right hand man was here to take care of everything.

"I'm guessing they have the building cleared." Troy stated as Gabriella nodded and started turning the door handle, only to stop and leave it shut as she pulled back like the brass handle burnt her. "What's wrong?" Troy asked.

She looked down at the ground blankly, as if she was in a trance and her tired eyes glazed over. Troy only saw one side of her face as her shaky hand rested on the door handle again, ready to open it and reveal their two friends looking for them.

"We can never speak of this." Her voice held warning in it and Troy swallowed hard. "What happened today; I'm not gonna deny that I didn't ask for it, but it **won't** happen again."

He watched her open the door leading out into the hallway that no longer had the flashing bright red lights, but instead held their two best friends who automatically called out to Gabriella and Taylor engulfed her in a hug.

Chad walked past the two girls offering Gabriella a smile as Troy barely registered that his best friend was next to him as he was too busy looking at the brunettes back. His heart beat a little faster as Gabriella turned her head slightly to look back at him, and for a second he could see sorrow in her eyes. But she turned away too quick for him to confirm.

"What the hell happened to your hair? It looks like you just got laid." Chad said it loud enough for both the girls to hear as Taylor let out a gasp of surprise, all of a sudden looking at Gabriella very closely, making sure she got every detail of her friend, and Gabriella tensed up before walking away from the three and towards the stairs; silently wishing that all her problems would go away and she could just think rationally about what just happened.

* * *

Jake Bennings was in his mid thirties. He was smart, some would call him handsome with his dark almost black hair gliding over his hair, his green eyes matching well with his tan skin. Everyone knew that he was the Chief's right hand man, and now since the Chief wasn't due back at headquarters in a couple of weeks, you had to go to him if you wanted anything to change or happen. Jake Bennings was in charge and he was going to make sure that that never changed, or at least until the Chief got back.

Gabriella watched the man standing at the head of the table, explaining what went on just now. The air conditioning was back on, but the electricity still wasn't working as they were running on their back up generators.

He had already explained how there was no casualties on either side as they didn't even know who these guys were. No one knew why they were in the CIA as it seemed to everyone that the guys were looking for something, although they didn't know what.

"Does anyone have any information that could lead us to the reason why they broke into headquarters?" Bennings voice boomed out to the thirty field agents as all the other hundreds of workers were back in their offices, trying to sort out the damage. The electricians that worked just for them were busy trying to salvage anything they could from computers to high-tech machines as they knew they probably had to replace almost everything, but they had to do it quickly within the next couple of days. The Doctors were in their labs, making sure the enemies didn't touch their things on the very lower levels of the laboratories.

Chad and Taylor sat across from Troy and Gabriella as they all shared a look and Gabriella went to speak, but Troy grabbed her knee and squeezed it making her let out a disguised gasp in a camouflage cough. She turned her head to look at him and he shook his head no.

She knew exactly what would happen if she told them they were looking for her. Bennings would assign more people to the case and they would somehow do a trade Gabriella for the girl, but during the trade they would have hidden agents ready to attack so Gabriella wouldn't exactly have to go with Jenson. Things would either go exactly how they wanted it to or it would all go down hill and Troy didn't want to take his chances on that.

"Very well. We'll need agents circling around town for these people. It's not like they can get that far. I'm also calling in other security guards because if this _thing _happens one more time, all our asses our on the line." He threatened as he started calling off names for assignments.

"I want everyone to be ready for whatever happens next, let's move people!" He ordered as various people stood up and followed one of the appointed leaders out. Others gathered their things and took the back door to the room out so they could do their assigned jobs. And others just sat there, waiting for everything to calm down a little so they could continue their cases they were working on before the invasion.

"What the hell Troy? We could've told him. Do you know how much trouble we'll be in if he finds out we all know what those guys wanted?" Gabriella hissed in a whisper as Chad and Taylor leaned in a little over the table to hear.

"I'm with Gabi on this one man, we'll be fired if Bennings finds out that we know what's going on." Chad piped up as there was no one left in the room now except the security cameras…

* * *

"Sir, everyone's back. Empty handed." The poor unfortunate guy reported back to Jenson who was busy staring transfixed at the twenty or so TVs in front of him smirking. Jenson knew that whoever was reporting back to him didn't want to be the barer of bad news, but what Jenson was thinking no one knew except him.

He turned in his chair to look at the young man in front of him. He had just witnessed how much Bolton meant to Gabriella and he was planning on using that against her in his selfish plans. "It's alright Boy. I had a change of plans." Jenson smirked even more as he turned away from his worker and looked at the TV that had the four friends talking in.

He couldn't hear what they were saying as he had people working on that little problem, but for the time being just watching was all he needed. He was going to let things get calm for a while now. Give them fake reassurance, and then strike. He was going to use Gabriella's trust and concern for someone else against her and he was going to enjoy every moment of it; especially if that meant taking Bolton down at the same time.

"Very well. Tell the others they have the day to themselves. We all need some recuperation time." Jenson turned once more in his seat to look at the brown haired, brown eyed young adult and kinked an eye brow as he didn't make a move to move. "Problem?"

The man who Jenson was trying to remember his name hesitated, "…Even the others who are on assignments?" The boy avoided Jenson's eye sight and that made Jenson feel powerful. He loved it when people were intimidated by him.

"Everyone. It's gonna be busy later on." Jenson waved his hand effortlessly as he finally heard his minion exit and leave him while he turned back to the screen to see the friends talking secretly.

* * *

"Not just fired, but our lives will be ruined. We'll have to go to court and trials and deal with all the lawyers." Gabriella added as Taylor and Troy both shook their heads and Gabriella found this surprising that her best friend was siding with Troy on this.

"Gabi, Troy is right. I mean, if Bennings found out they were after you and wanting to kill Troy then he would try to use that to get Molly back. And I know that we all want Molly back, but so many other things could go wrong and this is our only option." Taylor reasoned as Gabriella felt a head ache starting to form.

This couldn't be happening. She had to make a choice of whether to listen to them and go against everything they learned in their training or risk putting hers and Troy's lives at danger even more.

"Can't we find some other thing to do?" She asked meekly as she knew that there was nothing more except devise a plan to break into Jenson's mansion and get Molly back without disturbing and gaining attention from noisy people and press.

"I don't think there is." Troy voiced his opinion as Gabriella dreaded his answer.

"It's not like we have the equipment to do anything either." Taylor reminded them.

Gabriella blew out a huff of air. "We have to try something else. Okay?" She knew no one wasn't going to answer her as she vented out her anger. "We won't tell Bennings, but we have to do something to get Molly out of there as soon as possible. There's too much at risk to fuck up and there's no way that I'm leaving that girl with him any longer than I have too." Gabriella bellowed.

"We'll do something. There has to be something else we can do. Like maybe we can get blue prints or something to his house?" Chad suggested as Gabriella knew every passage way in that house already, but wasn't about to say that out loud. Taylor and Troy looked at Chad like he was completely crazy at that simple answer. "What? We have to start somewhere." He pointed out.

"Chad's right. And unfortunately with our limited resources right now we have to start there." Gabriella stood up and started pushing in her chair.

"So what do you want us to do?" Taylor asked indicating both her and Chad as the three of them pushed in their chairs.

Gabriella shut her eyes briefly as she felt Troy stand next to her, almost too closely right now as if this was any normal situation they would look like a couple, but in this situation it just felt weird now.

She opened her blood shot eyes. She couldn't let anyone else get hurt because of her and Jenson. It wasn't even a question when it came to her friends. "You two have your own case and we have ours. It's simple." Gabriella's tone came out mono tone and she couldn't bare to look at Taylor's crestfallen face at her friend's response.

"You're tired. You both are." Taylor pointed out. "You need rest, you need to shower, you need to eat something. But you need help the most." Taylor's voice was determined but Gabriella was even more determined to not let anything happen to them. And if she had her way then she would even take Troy off the case because if anything happened to him it would hurt more.

"Unfortunately this job doesn't come with those benefits. But uh…we have to keep going if we're gonna stop him once and for all." Gabriella said.

"Where will you two go if there's no trackers here?" Chad asked as Gabriella and Troy looked at each other.

He had ruffled hair, his tan skin a little paler than normal probably due from almost dying that day and then getting no rest, he had bags underneath his eyes matching her own, and he looked just as confused as Taylor and Chad.

Gabriella offered him a small smile, "We'll go to my place. I have things there and if it makes you feel better Tay we'll take a break for a while." Gabriella knew that the break would be very short however, but she didn't want her friend worrying about her as she had her own case to work on.

"Be careful. You know what Jenson can do." Taylor warned her softly as Gabriella nodded and swallowed a hard lump in her throat. She knew all too well what Jenson was capable of doing when push comes to shove, but she wasn't going to let history repeat itself.

"Ready Montez?" Troy asked leading the way to the door after Chad and him did their guy handshake.

Gabriella felt Troy's body pass her as their arms grazed over each other slightly, causing the little hairs on her neck and arms rise with anticipation of God only knows what. She had to learn to keep these feelings for Troy to herself because having a relationship was dangerous in this line of work, her parents were proof of that.

"Follow me." Gabriella replied as their eyes locked and he held the door open for her. Feelings would definitely be hard to hide if things kept happening like him accidentally touching her or their eyes locking on one another, but they were professionals. They should be good at that, right?

* * *

**Not much to say except thanks for the reviews and keep them coming if you want me to update.**


	16. You're Not a Fuck

"You're tired Brie." The voice taunted in her ear as she could almost hear the smirk on his ten well-defined face as he was hunched over her shoulder, his chin resting perfectly on her slumped shoulders.

Gabriella straightened up in her seat, blinking to make her eyes adjust to the bright computer screen as of right now her computer was reloading every single file the CIA had of Jenson. Any possible threat that was reported about him, any case that had a mystery unsolved about it that somehow could relate to Jenson, any witness reports calling in about reportedly seeing Jenson on the street. They were going to nail out where his whereabouts had been and why all of a sudden he was back besides trying to get Gabriella for whatever reason his sick mind could come up with.

If he had something else planned then they were going to know what things he had been stocking up on and that just had to start with any record they could accommodate through Gabriella's laptop.

She shook her upper body, making Troy back away slightly as his one hand still rested on the top of the computer chair while his body still hung over hers as the bar that was loading the files was only at five percent for the last ten minutes.

"I'm not tired Troy." Gabriella said as both of them knew it was a lie. They had been at her apartment for a couple of hours now seeing as it was 2 o'clock and neither one of them had slept, showered, or changed their clothes even though they stopped at Troy's house for him to grab extra things.

"Yes you are." Troy whispered in her ear again as Gabriella suppressed a shiver that started in her lower back and traveled it's way up her spine and down her arms, making little hairs stand up in excitement.

Gabriella groaned as she leaned forward with her elbows resting on the desk and her head going into her propped up hands. "This is taking too long."

He heard his deep chuckle vibrate in the back of his throat and Gabriella groaned again. "Brie…let's take a break. It's pretty obvious with our headquarters server down that your computer is just gonna take a little bit longer to hack into our files." Troy reasoned as she tensed up once she felt his hand rest nonchalantly on the small of her back. "Come on Montez."

Gabriella breathed deeply as she let her body accept Troy's touch. "We don't have time for a break." She pointed out as her body was just calling out for it to lay down and relax, but she was determined to push through it.

"I think someone needs a nice long shower." Gabriella felt her mouth go dry as Troy's lips moved against her ear lobe and she jolted to life as all of a sudden her bottom half of her ear was wet from his tongue.

She turned swiftly around in her spot, almost making Troy fall back from her quick movement, but he repositioned himself so he was nearly on top of her.

"A shower isn't going to make things better." Gabriella whispered as she tried to block out Troy's calloused fingers trickling over her bare arms.

"It'll at least make you smell better." Troy teased as Gabriella narrowed her eyes and knocked his hands off of her.

"At least I don't smell like death." Gabriella hissed as Troy feigned hurt making Gabriella hold back a giggle.

"Ha ha Montez. But remember what you told Taylor." Troy reminded her as Gabriella rolled her eyes and slid out from around Troy and stood up as he followed suit by straightening up.

"I told her I'd rest. That doesn't include showering." Gabriella didn't know exactly why she was arguing with Troy, although it wasn't so much as arguing, but disagreeing playfully.

"Brie…" Troy breathed out as Gabriella sensed the seriousness in his voice making her heart rate pick up on nerves. What was wrong? He was almost scaring her with how serious hew as acting because it wasn't like him to go from joking around to all of a sudden seriousness like that. "I think we need to talk…"

"What about?" Gabriella asked as she pushed a curl behind her ear, fidgeting nervously in her spot as she knew what he might be getting at.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about." He said as she shut her eyes and shook her head stubbornly.

She ripped her eyes open as she pushed past him and to her room as she could feel his body's vibrations right behind her. "Brie, you're not completely dense." He pointed out as she rolled her eyes.

The brunette turned around and rolled her eyes, "Thank you?" She more like questioned than commented

He sighed as he walked up to her and gripped her upper arms in his hands. She struggled in a very lazy way as she looked up at the blue eyes. She could do this, she had had this conversation with a couple of other guys in the past, although it usually ended with the guys leaving her life forever, and Gabriella not really caring, but she knew it wasn't going to go down like that this time.

"You going to tell me what happened this morning?" He more like demanded in a soft tone as she shrugged her shoulders. She hadn't even begun to process what happened between them that morning. Sure they slept together, they had sex and Gabriella just wanted to play it off like they were just comforting each other, and maybe they were, but something told her deep down that it wasn't just a fling. However, she would never admit that as she would be too vulnerable.

"We went to the laundry mat, we got into a fight with Jenson's men, you almost died, I past out from giving blood, climbed into an air vent, we had sex, went to a meeting, and basically now we're just wasting our time." Gabriella listed as if it wasn't that important.

"Okay." Troy nodded as Gabriella narrowed her eyes on him, for some reason just him agreeing with her upset her. The way he had a smile playing at his mouth, the way he seemed all too calm about this, and the way she let him in and how he knew about her past, even though it was she that told him.

"Okay fine, let's talk since you want to talk so much." Gabriella exclaimed as he just nodded his head.

"If you want." Troy replied softly as she glared at him even more.

Gabriella breathed out as she calmed herself down. She just needed to take a shower and a nap and she would feel better and she wouldn't have all these mixed up feelings. Gabriella walked over to the back of her bedroom door and grabbed the towel she had hanging there.

"We slept together, we can't take that back, so we're just gonna have to live with it." Gabriella said as if it was that easy when they both knew it wasn't.

"And…" Troy said as Gabriella huffed out air. She just wanted to forget about it, why was he making it so hard?

Gabriella turned around to face him again with darkened eyes before she entered the bathroom that was connected to her room. "And what?!" She yells. "Do you want me to tell you how great it was? That it was the best sex I've ever had?!" She yelled hysterically as Troy's smirked went smaller on his face and she just got angrier. "That I never wanted to stop?! Or that I might have feelings for you?! Is that what you want to hear because I could keep on going!"

"Brie…" He started as Gabriella shook her head realizing what she just confessed through her ranting.

"Forget it." She snapped with too much attitude as she walked into her bathroom and called back once the door was shut. "Make yourself at home!"

She took a deep breath as she rid of her clothes and threw them in the hamper that was by the bathroom door as she turned on the hot water just wanting to forget most of this day. She waited a minute before pulling back the shower curtain and stepping in to let the hot water wash away everything.

She stepped closer to the hot water so the water was slicking back her hair and she could use shampoo. She didn't hear the door open or the man stepping into the shower until she felt two arms encircle her body and she dropped the shampoo bottle before she could even squirt any out onto her hand.

"Troy!" She shrieked as he merely pressed kisses to the back of her neck, moving her hair in the process.

"…What…Brie?" He got out as he slowly laid kisses on her soaked neck, sucking and nipping gently compared to that morning.

"What are you doing?"

"Making myself at home, just like you said." Troy replied before nipping at her neck once again.

Gabriella knew this was wrong, but she couldn't help but turn around in his arms, forgetting about the shampoo bottle at their feet, forgetting how she was trying to convince herself how wrong this was on so many levels, and forgetting all of her senses as her hands reached up behind his neck, pulling him closer.

"This is wrong." She whispered, even though she knew neither one of them were believing her words.

She reached up on her toes and connected their lips as he pivoted and pinned her against the shower's wall. "So…wrong." He agreed as his lips moved down her neck and to her chest, tugging slightly as she swallowed a strangled moan.

Her fingers gripped his muscular upper arms so she didn't slide down the wall. "We…can't…do this…again." The brunette gasped out.

"You're…absolutely…right." Troy replied as his hard hands moved ruggedly down her body, causing Gabriella to forget everything.

* * *

"Pizza anybody?" The voice called out with a lot more life to the voice compared to the morning and afternoon events.

Troy situated himself better in the computer chair as he glanced at the computer as it was busy registering the code Gabriella used to try and hack into Jenson's computers. He looked away as a black screen over took it and little white letters started scrolling down it, registering what Gabriella wanted it to do.

He looked at Gabriella as she brought out two beers along with the pizza and put it all on the coffee table. He couldn't help but notice how much happier and relaxed she looked. It was almost surprising what a good shower and a long nap could do to you as they now both wore a new change of clothes and were already running on a couple cups of coffee.

"So we know Jenson's location, we have the blue prints of his mansion and headquarters, but we don't know his motive." Troy said as he got up from the computer chair and sat down by Gabriella with his back against the couch and his knees up with the coffee table in front of them.

Gabriella scrunched up her face in confusion as her eyes connected with his and she put her piece of pizza down already. "Motive?" She repeated slowly.

"Yeah, why does he have the girl? What's the purpose in that?" Troy asked out loud as Gabriella nodded her head slowly and he grabbed his own food while popping open his beer.

"He always has a motive, but what if Molly was just bait?" Gabriella asked as their eyes connected and their hands accidentally brushed while situating themselves better in their spots. "He's just using her because she's the Vice President's daughter to guide us to him."

"That makes sense. He knows we'll come after her, he knows you know his game plans, and then that brings us back to his motive." Troy declared. "He wants to kill me and he wanted to keep you alive for some reason…" He looked up as Gabriella glared at him playfully. "No offense." He added while flashing her a cheeky smile.

"No problem, but what you're saying makes sense. But what would he want to kill you for? It's not like you know him and you're poker buddies." Gabriella said light heartedly.

He knew she was trying to keep her eyes off of him for as long as possible as they both somehow agreed in bed that when it was time to work they would keep everything strictly professional. "We're not, but I've poked around his cases before when other people were trying to track him down. I ended up with nothing, but somehow he knew." They were silent for a couple of minutes and Troy spoke up again, "What about you? There has to be some reason he wanted to keep you alive."

Gabriella looked at him strangely. "No, he probably wants to just keep me alive to kill me later." Troy didn't buy that for one moment.

"No, it's something else." Troy said as his forehead creased and he racked his mind for a reason why Jenson would keep Gabriella around for himself. "He knows you, it's like he almost grew up with you if his father was obsessed with your family like all the papers say." Troy thought out loud and Gabriella just gave him a crazy look.

"I'm telling you, he probably just wants to kill me last or something Troy." Gabriella said nonchalantly and for a second Troy wondered how their lives got to be where they had to figure out who and why someone was going to kill them.

"No, it's something else. It's like he…he likes you. He's almost obsessed and he's using Molly to lure us in so I'll be out of the picture if he kills me and you'll be by yourself." He said quickly in one breath now as he finally strung it all together.

It made perfect since, grab a kid who's parents would pull a lot of weight to get her back as quickly as possible, kill off Gabriella's only partner and then Gabriella would have no one left to help her if the CIA was too busy to check up on her and Troy as they were busy fixing everything Jenson's men did back at headquarters.

"What?" Gabriella gasped as if it was a big joke, although it wasn't everyday that you find out the person who killed your parents liked you. "You're delusional." Gabriella let out another laugh again.

Troy just looked at her seriously as she stopped and turned serious too. "It makes sense. So it's decided, you should be removed from this case." Troy stated as Gabriella's eyes nearly bugged out of her face and he couldn't help but notice how cute she looked.

"Not decided." Gabriella retorted. "I don't know where you get off deciding these things, but we don't even know if what you're saying is true." Gabriella countered. "Plus you're the one he wants to kill."

Troy rolled his eyes, "Yeah, that's so much better than wanting to be fucked." He said sarcastically as Gabriella just didn't get that it was almost too dangerous for her, but then again it was dangerous for anyone and he was just becoming his over protective self.

Gabriella narrowed her eyes on him. "Is that what you think, it's all just a fuck?" Gabriella asked as he blinked at her confused for a moment before realizing that she was referring to their relationship instead of what he was explaining to her about Jenson.

"What? No." He answered defensively.

"Yeah, because you seem so convincing." He could hear the sarcasm in her voice and he wished he could just take back what he said, but he was determined to get it through Gabriella's head that she meant more to him.

"You want to know the difference between Jenson and me. One: I'm not some creepy killer who's only destination in life is gonna be jail. Two: obviously I'm right when it comes to him and how he likes you because who wouldn't like you and want you." Troy exclaimed as he was saying exactly what was on his mind without even realizing it. "Three: you can pout all you want when I tell you that you shouldn't be on this case because I don't want anything to happen to you, and if you don't like that then that's tough. Four: when you're with me we don't fuck each other and I actually respect you."

He found that he was almost breathing heavily when he finished as Gabriella just stared at him with shock written all over her face. Maybe he said too much, but he wouldn't take any of it back because what he said was true and he wasn't going to lie to her.

"Well then what do we do if we don't fuck because it seems to me we just keep bickering and fighting and then the next minute we're ripping each other clothes off and it's all just one BIG cycle." Gabriella exclaimed as the food in front of them was forgotten.

"Well we…" He was at a loss for words as she looked at him expectantly. "We're whatever you want us to be."

It got silent in the room as he looked at her, awaiting her answer anxiously. He knew what he wanted, but he didn't want to freak her out and from what he remembered Gabriella made it pretty clear that they couldn't be anything more than friends when they were in the shower together.

Gabriella sighed as her small hand reached up and ran through her soft curly hair. "I asked you first."

Troy rolled his eyes as a small smile came over his face, "What are you, five?"

Gabriella shrugged, "I think we're just…" She trailed off as her computer made a 'dinging' noise. Gabriella got up quickly from the ground as Troy closed his eyes in frustration and reluctantly got up from the ground and followed her over to the computer.

He comes up from behind her and looks at the screen as it looked like twenty different boxes were on the screen, each having their own movies going through them as some screens had no movement in them.

"I thought this would bring us to Jenson's files." Troy said puzzled as he scratched the back of his neck and Gabriella leans forward a bit as if she doesn't believe what she's seeing. "This is just footage of something."

Gabriella turns her head a little, "Troy." She breathes out.

"Yeah?" He asks almost too excitedly as how she said his name came out so erotically that he could only hope that she was going to finish her sentence from before.

"This is the CIA's security footage." She pointed out and Troy's stomach drops as his eyes go wide and he leans in, his hard chest balancing on Gabriella's hunched over back as she leans even further in from sitting on the computer chair.

"No, it can't be." He says even though he sees his best friend sitting at his desk, talking to Gabriella's best friend in the lobby. "There's more than twenty cameras in the CIA." He points out smartly as if that would pause the video footage appearing on Gabriella's laptop right now.

Gabriella shakes her head and points her skinny finger at the glowing computer screen. "Look, they change point of views every couple of minutes." Gabriella said as sure enough one of the cameras changed and Troy's eyes nearly bugged out of his head again. Instead of looking at his best friend talking to Taylor, he sees the room Gabriella and him were occupying when they first slept together as no one was in it though.

"This is how Jenson's been getting a step ahead of us."

"He's been watching everything we do." Gabriella breathed out in horror and shock.

"_Everything_?" His voice was weak and his face paled as he thought about that midmorning with Gabriella.

Gabriella nodded her head strongly. "Everything." She confirmed.


End file.
